The new glories of the Catholic Church

NEW GLORIES

OF

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH.

THE

NEW GLOEIES
THE CATHOLIC CHURCH.

TRANSLATED FROM THE ITALIAN
BY THE

FATHERS OF TEE LONDON ORATORY,

AT THE REQUEST OF THE

CARDINAL ARCHBISHOP OF WESTMINSTER.
WITH A PREFACE

BY HIS EMINENCE;

LONDON:

RICHARDSON AND SON,
147, STRAND; 9, CAPKL STREET, DUBLIN; AND DEUBY,

MDCCCL1X.

FEB 25 1955

PREFACE.

At a time when the eyes of nations are fixed on
Home, some in filial love because of the dangers
which are closing round it, and others in eager
hope of the downfall and dishonour of the Church
of God; when Italy and the whole Catholic
unity are afflicted by indignities heaped upon
the Vicar of Jesus Christ, by those too who
profess the Catholic name, the Holy Father, by
commanding the publication of the following
pages, points us to his solace and strength in the
farthest East, where are now arising the New
Glories of the Church of God.

And to what does he direct our eyes ? It is
to no new splendour of Christian empires, no new
monuments of Catholic civilization, but to the
plains and cities of Corea, long-King, and
Cochin-China, steeped with Catholic blood, shed
not in the onslaught and victories of war, but in
the more glorious martyrdoms of bishops and
priests, of aged men, and feeble women, and chil
dren of tender age. The volume in our hands is

VI PREFACE.

a new martyrology. And for supernatural endu
rance of pain, and grandeur of heroic constancy, it
is not to be surpassed by the annals of the confes
sors and martyrs of antiquity. It is a seasonable
note of warning and encouragement, at a time
when princes and their ministers, diplomatists and
free companies in arms, are confidently looking
for the humiliation and subjection of the Church,
and for the dethronement or the thraldom of the
Sovereign Pontiff, he, as if not deigning to unroll
the volume of the Roman Martyrology, and to
point to the line of Pontiffs, who, from St. Peter
to St. Alexander, vindicated their sovereignty with
their blood, directs our gaze to the imperishable
life and the invincible power of the Church,
revealed at this hour in the conflicts and crowns
of these new and almost unheard of soldiers of the
Faith, who revive in the nineteenth century the
warfare and the conquests of the apostolic age.

For such is the history of the Church of God.
It is like its Divine Head : " Yesterday, and to
day, and the same for ever:" Confessor, Martyr,
and Sovereign upon earth. It is invested always
with the purple of His Passion and of His
royalty.

No one can read these pages without being
struck by the wonderful unity and identity of the
acts and sufferings of the Church in all its a^es.
It is ever " filling up those things that are -want
ing of the sufferings of Christ."* " Et qui pro
* Col. i. 24.

PREFACE. Yll

nobis mortem semel vicit, semper vincit in
nobis."* And as the martyr adds, " quod in ilia
crudelitate carnificum plus pro quo patitur Chris-
tus ipse patiatur."f The martyrdom of the
Church is the evolving of the Passion of its Lord,
accomplishing itself in His members.

In these most touching narratives, therefore, we
could believe ourselves to be reading from the
"Acta Sincera Martyrum " of Ruinart. The same
persons appear in the conflict. Bishops, priests,
deacons, catechists, acolytes, virgins, old men, and
mere children. There are almost the same in
struments of torture and death, the rod, the rack,
the gibbet, and the sword. If there be any differ
ence, it is that the refined and exquisite tortures of
the board, the rubbing stick, and the sawing rope,
were not known to the ruder cruelty of the am
phitheatre, where the Africans made a speedy
way to the crown of Martyrdom. There are,
moreover, the very same names so dear to the
Church, Agatha and Agnes, Barbara and Perpetua,
Lucy and Julitta, Peter and Paul, Ignatius and
Stephen, Protasius and Sebastian. There are the
same interrogatories and the same answers ; the
same holy defiance and divinely inspired contempt
of pain, torture, and death ; there is the same
wonderful illumination of the knowledge of God
in the mouths of the simple, and of children ; the
same intense detestation of paganism ; the same
burning and tender love for Jesus and Mary, the

* Cypr. Ep. viii. f De laude Martyrii.

Vlll PREFACE.

same consuming zeal for the glory of God and of
His Church. We could believe ourselves to be
reading of the martyrdoms of Spain, Bithynia, and
Sicily.

There has been an affectation among historical
critics, especially of the controversial sort, to deny
and even to ridicule the accounts of those who suf
fered in persecution, the amazing number of the
great army of martyrs, the boldness of their
defiance, their fearless challenge of torture, their
prompt and apt replies ; the multiplicity and ter-
ribleness of their sufferings. Much supercilious
criticism has been expended upon the representa
tions of the instruments of torture graven on the
Catacombs, and learned books have been written
to reduce the whole glorious history of their pas
sion to a commonplace account of a few who lost
their lives for their opinion or their rashness.

Now in these cotemporaneous records we have
the simple and literal reproduction of the past.

First, as to the wide and sweeping extent of
persecution, we find whole families taken at
once, whole flocks carried away with their pas
tors, whole villages driven off to prison or to
torture. And yet nobody will maintain that
China at this day is as haughtily contemptuous
of human life as the empire of heathen Home,
in which whole provinces were punished by san
guinary edicts, whole legions decimated 'or de
stroyed. If such be at this day the havoc in

PREFACE. IX

one province, and in a few years, what must
have been the wholesale martyrdom throughout
the world- wide provinces of the Eoman Empire,
and in ten persecutions running through nearly
three hundred years?

Next, we find the same beautiful histories of
women and children, weak and timid, shrinking
with great dread before the hour of their conflict,
hardly able to endure the eyes of their jailors
and their judges, until, in the moment of trial,
a new and supernatural courage entered into
them, and a mouth and wisdom was given to
them, which their adversaries could neither gain
say nor resist. To quote examples would be,
not to write a preface, but to transcribe the
book. We cannot, however, refrain from direct
ing attention to a few examples.

Mary Ouen is described as an orphan at an
early age. Though young, she was of a mature
prudence, " upright, humble, sweet and amiable."
Her character was feminine and shrinking. She
had consecrated herself to Jesus Christ. When
seized by night, and carried to her trial, she
was at first disturbed in mind, but she soon
became calm, and went with a firm step to
prison. Her hands were bound behind her
back, and she was led before the tribunal. The
judge said to her: You are of the sect of the
Christians. She answered : " You have said it :"
words which recall a greater than she. After
steadfastly refusing to save her life by apostasy,

X PREFACE.

she was tortured till her legs were twisted, and
the ground was covered with her blood. She
received her crown at the age of twenty-one.*

Columba Kim was naturally of a timid dis
position, even more so than women ordinarily
are. Every time that she heard that a Christian
had been apprehended, she grew pale, and fell
into a sort of swoon. Nevertheless, before the
tribunal she displayed a courage which made an
impression upon her judges. t After a confes
sion, which, for boldness and constancy amidst
prolonged indignities and tortures, cannot be
surpassed, she was martyred at the age of
twenty- six.

Another remarkable fact confirming the early
records is, that the sense of pain appears at
times to have been either mitigated or sus
pended.

Charles Tchao was three times tortured. He
underwent eleven interrogatories ; during his
tortures he showed such firmness, without a
single sigh or word of complaint, and so sur
prising an insensibility, that the judges and
officers said : " This man's body is not of flesh,
but of wood or stone. "J

Elizabeth Ting was tortured seven times,
and endured 300 blows of the rod. Amidst
her torments her countenance was unmoved.
She afterwards said : " By a special grafce I

* Page 53, 54- t Page 77.

J Page 69.

PREFACE. XI

did not expire beneath the blows, and I now
understand a little what an immense agony my
Saviour must have suffered."*

Barbara Ko before her torture was greatly
afraid ; but once begun, she said : " Truly I
did not know that it would be so sweet to
' suffer for Jesus Christ, "t

M. Chapdelain, after the most prolonged and
terrible sufferings could not walk a step. But,
shortly after, he rose and walked as if in perfect
health. The officers who witnessed this miracle
came to him, and asked how it had been per
formed, and accused him of magic. J

One more instance is so identical with the
early martyrdoms that we must briefly add it.
Peter Liou svas tortured eight times. He
received 600 blows of the rod. Fourteen times
he was brutally treated by the executioners.
He received forty blows of the board. During
his torture he displayed so great a firmness,
and so tranquil an air, that the very execu
tioners stood in amazement. He took the shreds
of his flesh and skin and threw them before the
judges. In the prison there was an apostate,
to whom he said : " You are a catechist, and a
grown man. I am only a boy. It is you who
ought to be exhorting me to suffer courageously.
How comes it that we have changed places ?
Keturn to yourself, and die for Jesus Christ."

* Page 86. f Page 87.

J Page 146.

Xll PREFACE.

He was strangled in prison at the age of
thirteen,* and ascended to join the glorious
army of children, of whom St. Vitus and St.
Celsus are the standard-bearers, and to walk
side by side with St. Christopher, who, at eight
years of age being scourged, crowned with
thorns, and crucified, said to the executioner who
would lay open his right side, " Si cor quseris,
alterum latus mihi effodias et scruteris."

Lastly, we may notice the supernatural tokens
of the Divine Presence, which consoled, as in
the early persecutions, the Bufferings of the
martyrs.

In the case of Charles Tchao it is recorded that,
in the beginning of 1839, he had a dream, in
which he saw Jesus Christ, with St. Peter and
St. Paul beside Him, and he heard these words
from His lips, " In the course of this year I will
give thee the grace of shedding thy blood for the
glory of my Name." Charles thanked Him, and
made a profound inclination before Him. The
year was not expired before he entered into the
joy of his Lord.

Again, before the breaking out of the persecu
tion in which M. Chapdelain suffered, in 1853, a
cross of light, surrounded by a brilliant crown,
seemed to hang over the village of Yoa-chan.
It was seen by both pagans and Christians alike.
We will add but one passage more. It is a

* Page 100.

PREFACE.

letter written from his prison by M. Bonnard to
his Bishop and the faithful.

" My Lord and most clear Friends,

" This is the last letter that I shall write to
you. The solemn hour has struck. Farewell.
I make appointments with all of you, who re
member and love me, to meet me in heaven. I
hope in the mercy of Jesus, and I have a firm
confidence that He has pardoned my innumerable
sins. I offer with all my heart my blood and my
life for the love of my dear Master, and for those
beloved souls whom I would have served so wil
lingly to the best of my power."

After other words he adds: —

" I beseech you to remember me before the
Lord : be sure that, as I have told you before, if
He has mercy on my soul, I will not forget you
for ever.

" To-morrow, Saturday, the Feast of St. Philip
and St. James, the first of May, is the anni
versary of the entrance of M. Schcefner into
heaven, and I believe it is the day appointed for
my own sacrifice. God's will be done. Blessed
be God, I die happy. I bid farewell to all, in
the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary. In manus
tuas, Domine, commendo spiritum mcum. In
cordibus Jesu et Marise osculor vos, amici mei.

"Vinctus in Christo, the vigil of my death,
April 30, 1852."

XIV PREFACE.

If the dates and names were lost we mio-ht

O

have read this as an epistle from Lyons or Vienne,
from Carthage or from the Mamertine prisons.

Coming from the sacred hands of the holy
Father, this most touching and stirring volume
speaks to us with the voice of an apostolic warn
ing, summoning the faithful to fidelity in the con
flicts in these latter days, and to constancy even
unto death. It shows us that to this hour the
Church is the same, and the world is the same,
antagonist, and irreconcilable : for the world will
not change and the Church cannot. There is the
same conflict, the same enmity, the same issue.
The world martyrs the Church, and the Church
subdues the world. The words of our Divine
Lord are always verified, " I came not to send
peace upon earth, but a sword." The age of
martyrs as of miracles never ceases. Martyrdom
is a perpetual note upon the mystical body. It
has the Stigmata of Jesus ever fresh upon it.
We speak, indeed, of the ten persecutions of an
tiquity as if they were ten distinct and isolated
assaults of the world. They were but ten more
vehement bursts of a storm which was ever hover
ing overhead, wheeling about the horizon, and
descending with a sudden stroke, first in one and
then in another region, but making perpetual
havoc, to and fro, throughout the whole Catholic
unity. So in every successive age. There hav^,
indeed, been lulls and returns of the storm : it has
died down, but it has never died out. The

PREFACE. XV

world, whether Jewish or heathen, heretical or
sehismatical, secular or nominally Catholic, Lati-
tudinarian or infidel, has always persecuted the
Church of God. Its instincts tell it that either it
or the Church must die. Three centuries ao-o

O

and England was the field of martyrdom ; then it
fell upon the islands of the Indian seas ; then
upon Poland ; then France ; then in our own day
upon Eome, and now, for half a century it is upon
the far East. In sending out, therefore, this
volume to the faithful, and in inscribing upon it
the title "The New Glories of the Catholic
Church," the Vicar of Jesus Christ has sent, as
was the custom of Israel among its tribes, the
warning and the invitation to arm for an impend
ing strife. And certainly the Pontiff who has
upon his brow the glory of defining the Immacu
late Conception of the second Eve, ought to
be the special object of the enmity of the seed of
the serpent upon earth. He bids us, then, to
revive our consciousness of the great laws and
prerogatives, the sacred truths and instincts of the
Church of God ; of the glorious passion and
splendid crowns of our Fathers ; of the immutable
sameness of the warfare ; of the possible impend
ing of the same conflicts, which we not only read
in Martyrologies, but see before us at this day.
The voice of the Father of the Faithful calls us to
a closer and more loving attachment to our pas
tors, the leaders and cross-bearers in this great
warfare, to a more docile and intimate union with

XY1 PEEFACE. /

the mind and will of the holy Eoman Church ; to
a fearless constancy for even so much as a shadow
of the Faith, and to a confidence that the same
Almighty grace and loving presence of the King
of Martyrs can make even of us, weak and un
used to danger, shrinking and soft to pain, con
fessors as inflexible, and martyrs as glorious, as
they who won their crowns in the Flavian amphi
theatre or in the sunless prisons of Corea. He
speaks to us as with the voice of the great mar
tyr of Africa, — " O beatam Ecclesiam nostram,
quam sic honor divine dignationis illumiriat, quam
temporibus nostris gloriosus martyrum sanguis
illustrat. Erat ante in operibus fratrum Candida.
Nunc facta est in martyrum cruore purpurea.
Floribus ejus nee lilia nee rosse desunt. In coeles-
tibus castris et pax et acies habent flores suos ;
quibus miles Christi ob gloriam coronetur. Opto
vos, fortissimi et beatissimi fratres, semper in
Domino bene valere, et nostri meminisse."* —
Valete.

* S. Cyp. Ep. VIII. ad Martyres et Confessorea.

CONTENTS.

CEfAPTER I. COREA.

PAGE

AKT. I. — Acts of several Corean Martyrs in the persecution of 1839,

collected by Charles Hien, and Thomas Y, . . . . . . i

The tortures, ., .. .. .. .. .. .. 8

The prisons, .. .. .. .. .. .. n

Laurence Imbert, Bishop, .. .. ... .. 12

Peter Maubant, Priest, .. .. .. .. .. 18

James Chastan, Priest, . .. .. .. .. ..20

Augustine Y, his wife Barbara, and their daughter Agatha, .. 23

Damian Nam and Mary his wife, .. .. .. ..26

Peter Kouen, .. .. .. .. .. .. ..28

Agatha Y, widow, .. .. .. .. .. .. 31

Magdalen Kim, widow, .. .. .. .. ..32

Barbara Hau, widow, .. .. .. .. .. ., 33

Anne Pak, .. .. .. .. .. .. ..34

Agatha Kim, widow, .. .. .. .. ... » 35

Lucy Pak, maid of honour to the queen, . . . . • • 37

Mary Heing, .. .. .. .. .. .. ..40

John Baptist Y, .. .. .. .. .. .. 41

Magdalen Y, her mother Magdalen, Teresa her aunt, Barbara her

sister, and Barbara her niece, .. .. .. ..42

Martha Kim, .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 48

Lucy Kim, .. .. .. .. .. .. ..49

Anne Kim, widow, .. .. .. .. .. .. 51

Rose Kim, widow, .. .. .. .. ., .. 51

Mary Ouen, .. .. .. .. .. .. •• 53

John Pak, .. .. .. .. .. .. • • 54

Paul Ting, .. .. 55

XV111 CONTENTS.

T-AUE

Augustine Liou, " . . • • 59
Charles Tchao, 64

Sebastian Nam,

6S

Ignatius Kim, • • 69

JulittaKim, .. ' ..70

Agatha Tsen, .... •• 73

Magdalen Pak, .... •- 74

Perpetua Hong, widow,
Columba Kim and her sister Agnes,

Peter Tshoi -. 8o

Barbara Tso, wife of Sebastian Nam,

Magdalen Han, widow, her daughter Agatha, and Agatha Y, . . 83

Benedicta Hien, widow, .. ..84

Elizabeth, sister of Paul Ting, . ..85

Barbara Ko, . .

Magdalen Y and her sister Mary,

Augustine Pak, catechist, • • 9°

Peter Hong arid Paul his brother, • • 9°

Magdalen Son, wife of Peter Tshoi, .. 9*

JohnY, .. .. •• •• 92

Barbara Tshoi, .. - 94

Paul He, .... -95

Peter Y, -96

Joseph Tsang,

Protasius Tseng, •• 98

Peter Liou, .. "99

Agatha Tsong,

Barbara Kim, ••

Lucy the Dwarf,

Anna Han, and her sister-in-law, Barbara Kim, widow, . . . . 102

Catherine Y, widow, and her daughter Magdalen Tso, .. •• i°2

Francis Tshoi,

Andrew Tseng,

Teresa Kim, ..

Stephen Min, . .

Antony Kim, .... ..104

CONTENTS.

COREA.

PAGE

ART. II.- Letter of Mgr. Ferr^ol, Vicar Apostolic of Corea, to Signer
Barran, Superior of the Foreign Missions "at Paris, relative to
the new Coreati Martyrs, .. .. .. .. 106

CHAPTER II. CHINA.

Letter of M. Guillemin, Prefect Apostolic of the Mission of Quang-
tong and Quang-si, to the Directors of the Pious Work of the
Propagation of the Faith, .. .. .. .. .. 130

CHAPTER HI WESTERN1 TONGKING.

ART. I.— Letter of Mgr. Retord, Bishop of Acanthus, and Vicar Apos
tolic of Western Tongking, about the glorious martyrdom of
11. Sehceffler, .. .. .. .. .. .. 152

ART. II. — Letter of the same Prelate about the glorious martyrdom

of M. Bonnard, .. .. .. .. .. .. 177

CHAPTER IV. COCHIN CHINA.

SEC. I. — An account of the martyrdom of Philip Minh, a priest, writ
ten by the Bishop of Isauropolis, .. .. .. .. 209

SEC. II. — An account of the Martyrdom of other Confessors, written

by the same Bishop.— Peter Dinh, .. .. .. .. 225

Matthew Gam, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227

Louis Ngb, catechist, .. .. .. .. .. -.233

SEC. III.— Extract from a letter of the Pro- Vicar Apostolic of Cochin

China, on the Martyrdom of F. Egidius Delamotte, . . . . 235

CHAPTER V. OCEANICA,

Account of the Martyrdom of Fr. Louis Chanel, of the Congregation
of Marists, by Monsignor Bataillon, Vicar Apostolic of Central
Oceanica, .. .. .. .. .. .. 244

Decr^tum, .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 256

NEW GLORIES

OF

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH.

CHAPTER I.

COREA.

ARTICLE I.

«

Acts of several Corean Martyrs in the persecution of
1839, collected ly Charles Hien* and Thomas T."t

After the persecution of 1801, the church of
Corea remained for several years in a state of

* Charles Hien is the principal catechist in Corea.
It was to him that the bishop entrusted, before his
death, the superintendence of the Christian settle
ments. He was captured in the persecution of 184(5,
and is still in prison. He will doubtless follow to
victory those whose acts he has collected. (He was
beheaded on the 19th of September of the same year.)

f Thomas Y, or Ly, according to the Chinese
pronunciation, is the nephew of the mandarin Ly
who introduced Christianity into Corea. The king
has commanded an active search to be made for
him.

2 COREA.

great weakness. The one pastor whom it pos
sessed had disappeared, the principal Christians had
been put to death, or sent into exile, and all com
munication with the church of Pekin was stopped.
In the meantime those among the faithful most
distinguished for their virtue ceased not to hasten,
by their prayers, the time when they should again
behold priests among them, to guide them in the
way of salvation. God heard them, and opened
the way, which had until then been closed. The
government interpreter, Augustine Liou, and Charles
Tchao, who was his subordinate in that employ
ment, embraced the faith. As they accompanied
the embassy to Pekin every year, they found it
easy to negotiate our religious affairs, and to
renew our correspondence with the bishop, in
whose charge we then were. They asked him for
apostolic labourers, and the prelate promised to send
them some. This promise revived our courage. In
1833 Father Pacifico Yu was the first to pene
trate into this kingdom, but he remained here only
three years. In 1835 M. Maubant succeeded, after
much travelling, in reaching the frontier, and cross
ing it. The following year he was followed by M.
Chastan, and in 1837 we were allowed to see
amongst us our Bishop, Mgr. Imbert. A great light
then spread from the east over our land, and dis
pelled the darkness : those of weak faith were
strengthened, the lukewarm became fervent, many
pagans heard the good tidings, and the waters of
baptism flowed over their heads. But, alas ! the

COREA. 3

enemy of God prepared more misfortunes for us.
He implanted in the heart of a false brother the
avarice which was the ruin of the traitor Judas.
Kimiensan was the name of this false brother. He
went to find the chief of the officers, received
from him the reward of his treachery, and then be
trayed the principal Christians to him. This took
place in December, in the year 1838. From that
time the persecution was declared. For some years
past a famine had desolated the country. The
officers, urged on by thirst for plunder, rushed to
the houses denounced to them, and pillaged their
contents ; then, loading the inhabitants with chains,
they threw them into prison in crowds. The chief
judge of the criminal tribunal informed the Court
of this affair of the Christians. Those who
apostatised were set at liberty, and had their pro
perty restored to them. The storm abated for a
moment ; but shortly after, when fresh charges were
brought forward by one of the first ministers, the
horizon of our unfortunate country became more
gloomy than ever. The apostates were again seized.
The twelve places of assembly which we had in the
capital were suddenly attacked and laid in ruins.
The pastoral staff, the mitre, and the other episco
pal ornaments, fell into the hands of our enemies.
They amused themselves by imitating our holy
ceremonies. The capture of these religious objects
rendered the search more severe and the tortures
more frequent. They wished to know whence they
came. The Christians under torture did not utter

4 COREA.

a single word which could compromise the Bishop
and his fellow-labourers. Then the Minister Y
made the Court aware of what was passing ; a terri
ble edict against the Christians was drawn up, and
despatched to all parts; the provincial governors,
however, did not insist upon its complete execution.
Shortly afterwards the Minister Y was deposed, and
Tchao, our most unrelenting enemy, took his place.
Consequently the persecution became more violent.
By his orders all the Christians who were then in
the prisons of the capital were strangled, excepting
three, whose fate he left undecided.

Mgr. Imbert was in Seoul* at the time, and left
it to be near MM. Maubant and Chastan, who were
ministering to the Christians in the southern pro
vinces. Their presence in the kingdom was still a
secret. They passed three days together, deli
berating on the course which they ought to pursue
under such unfavourable circumstances. As they
were unable to leave the kingdom, because every
exit was closed to them, they determined to
separate, and to take those measures of prudence
which the times required, while they awaited with
resignation the trials which Providence should pre
pare for them.

In the meantime the traitor Kimiensan was
seeking an opportunity to deliver up the Bishop
and his fellow-labourers whom he had denounced.

* Seoul, or Capital, the name of the city in Corea
which is the residence of the Court.

COREA. 5

The simplicity of a Christian soon afforded him one.
Taking some officers with him, he went up to this
person, and said to him : " Oh what good news I
have to tell you ! Have you heard that the king
and his ministers are converted ? They desire to be
thoroughly instructed in the Christian religion, and
to receive baptism at the hands of the Bishop, and
they have sent these people to bring him to Court.
You are acquainted with his place of retirement,
tell me where it is, and we will go there together."
The Christian fell into the trap, and in a transport
of joy set out in company with this troop. He left
the officers at a distance of three leagues, and the
traitor but a short way off: then going in to the
Bishop, he related all that he had heard. " You
are simple, indeed, to believe such stories ; you
have been deceived," replied the Bishop. Thinking
that flight was impossible, and might even be pre
judicial to his flock, Mgr. Imbert celebrated mass,
took a modest repast, and delivered himself up to his
enemies.

The government, finding the chief of the Chris
tians in its power, determined to seize the other two
priests at any cost. Officers were despatched in all
directions: the prisons were filled with Christians.
As the two Europeans could not long remain con
cealed without being captured, the Bishop wrote to
them these few words : " A good shepherd gives his
life for his sheep : in the extremity in which we find
ourselves you will be pleased to come to the capital
immediately on receiving this note. Do not allow

6 COREA.

any of your servants to accompany you." A man
darin of inferior rank, with an escort of soldiers, was
the bearer of the letter: the two priests received
it with great joy, made without delay the final
arrangements necessary for the guidance of the
Christians after their death, and cheerfully went to
receive the palm which awaited them. The Bishop
and his fellow labourers were confined in the prison,
and the same day saw them ascend to heaven, and
take possession of the crown of martyrdom.

About two hundred persons were captured at
Seoul; and nearly fifty of them were beheaded.
More than sixty persons were strangled, or died
under, or immediately after the torture, or of illness.
Those of them who had apostatised acknowledged
their fault before their death, and retracted their
denial of the faith. When the guards of the prison
witnessed their expressions of sorrow, they said :
" Their mouth alone renounced their religion, their
heart has always remained unchanged." " In
truth," added the other apostates, as they left the
prison, " there is no fear for their salvation : nothing
more can be necessary to their contrition : even the
children die with a cheerfulness which is surprising.'*
The other prisoners were set at liberty.

In the province of Tsella nine persons were
beheaded, five of whom had been in prison for
thirteen years. About twelve expired under the
torture or died in prison.

In the province of Kiensang three persons were
beheaded.

COREA. 7

In that of Kang-ouen one had his head cut off,
two died in prison, and two others were exiled.

In the province of Thong-Tsheng seven persons
were captured and sent to Seoul; some of these
were beheaded, the rest died in prison.

In the province of Kiengkei, and in the country
beyond the capital, nine died in prison. Two years
after this great persecution, the Christians in Seoul
were again pursued. By the mercy of God no more
than seven persons were taken and put to death.

The traitor Kimiensan thought that he had gained
great merit, and was in expectation of being largely
rewarded: but he became the object of universal
hatred. In the following year, in company with
another man of equally bad character, he again
attempted to provoke a persecution of the Chris
tians, but he was arrested, severely beaten, and
exiled for life.

The minister Y fell into disgrace, was banished,
and died shortly after arriving at his place of exile.

The minister Tchao* expired at table in the
height of his prosperity. Such is the success of
those who would rebel against the Most High.

* Tchao was the king's maternal uncle. The king,
fearing his influence, commanded him to swallow a
cup of poison, and he died on the spot. This hap
pened in the month of December, 1843, ten days
before I came to the capital.

8 COREA.

THE TOETUEES.

In order that we may not have to describe re
peatedly the tortures which the different martyrs
underwent, we will explain them here once for all.
There are nine kinds of them.

1. " The board" is made of the wood of an ex
tremely hard species of oak, of the thickness of an
inch and a half, nine inches in breadth, and four
feet in length, fashioned at one end in the form of
a handle. The sufferer is laid at full length, with
his face turned towards the ground, while a strong
man strikes him violently with the instrument de
scribed, on the tender part of the leg above the
knee. After a few blows the blood rushes out,
the flesh is detached, and pieces of it fly off. At
the tenth stroke the board penetrates to the bone,
and gives out a horrible sound. Some of the Chris
tians received more than sixty blows at a time.
The sufferer, the executioner, and the ground, be
come covered with blood, and pieces of flesh.

2. The " triple rod" is formed of three stout
rods twisted together like a rope: the sufferer is

tf

stripped, and beaten with this over' the whole of
his body.

3. The "long rods" are four in number: they
are about the height of a man, and the thickness
of one's arm. Four men stand round the sufferer,
and all strike him at once with the ends of the rods
about the hips and thighs.

COREA. y

4. Bending the legs. The two great toes are
tied one against the other, and the two legs to
gether above the knees; two sticks are placed
between them, and slowly drawn apart until the
bones take the form of a bow, when they are very
gradually relaxed. Or else, after the great toes
are tied together, a piece of wood is placed between
the legs, and two men pulling cords fastened to the
knees, draw them gradually together, until at last
they touch one another.

5. The dislocation of the arms. The arms are
tightly tied together behind the back at the elbows,
and forcibly parted by means of two sticks : after
wards the shoulders are drawn together by cords
fastened to each arm : lastly, all these being
loosened, a man takes hold of the hands of the
sufferer, and resting his feet on his breast, draws
his arms towards him to bring the bones back to
their places.

6. Rubbing the legs. This punishment consists
in rubbing the front of the legs with a triangular
stick: after a time the skin is removed, and the
wood scrapes the bone.

7. The " sawing-rope." A rope is laid round
the leg, and two men take hold of the ends and
draw it to and fro, after the manner of sawyers,
until it reaches the bone : it is then transferred to
another part.

8. Hanging. The sufferer is stripped, his hands
are fastened behind his back, and he is hung up by
his arms: then four men beat him in turn with

10 COREA.

sticks. In a short time his tongue hangs out of his
mouth, foam issues from it, and his face assumes
a purple colour: he is taken down before he
expires that he may again undergo the same torture.

9. The "ruler" is a piece of wood two inches
wide, three feet long, and very thin. "When the
Christian has not denied the faith at the first tribu
nal, he is transferred to the second ; there he under
goes three interrogatories, and each time he receives
thirty blows of the ruler on the front of the leg.
The piece of wood is made in such a manner that
it breaks at the first blow, so that thirty are
required for each interrogatory. If, after the third,
he still remains firm, sentence is pronounced. The
tenor of it is, that he is condemned to death for
following after evil doctrine. The laws of the king
dom require that the criminal, before undergoing
his sentence, should sign it with his own hand.
The martyrs all refused to do this. " Our religion
is the true one, and the only true one," they an
swered, " we cannot bear witness to what is false."
Their hands were seized, and they were made by
force to sign it.

It is easy to perceive that, after undergoing such
tortures, the sufferers no longer retained the use of
their limbs. After the interrogatory, two of the
executioners took them up on two sticks, and
carried them, with their arms and legs hanging
down, into their dungeon.

COREA. 11

THE PEISONS.

The prison is a large enclosure surrounded by
high walls ; in the interior, the cells are arranged
in several floors; they have no windows, and but
little daylight penetrates into them. The cold is
intolerable in winter,* and the heat in summer.
The floors of the cells are covered with mats of
coarse straw. The Christians were crowded to
gether in them to such a degree, that they could
not stretch out their legs.

They all bore witness that the torments just de
scribed, could bear no comparison with those which
they had to suffer in this fearful abode. In a short
time their mats grew rotten from the blood and
matter which issued from their wounds, and filled
the place with an intolerable stench.

But it was hunger which was by far their most
grievous suffering ; some of them, who had endured
the rest, could not bear up against this. Their food
consisted of a cup containing a handful of small
millet, which they received twice a day. They
were reduced to eating even the putrefying straw
on which they lay. The prisons swarmed with
fleas, lice, and bugs, to such a degree, that they
took them up by handfuls, and, horrible to relate,
did not shrink from making them their food. A

* In the course of last winter, the thermometer
at Seoul went down to 20 degrees of Reaumur, or 13
below zero of Fahrenheit.

12 COREA.

pestilential sickness appeared among them, and
carried off a great number. In the midst of all
these sufferings, the glorious soldiers of Jesus Christ
had but one fear; namely, that they should die
before they laid their heads under the axe of the
executioner, and they even took medicines to pro
long their existence.

In Corea great secrecy is observed in the trial of
criminals. Almost all the confessors wrote letters :
it is unfortunate that they have been lost, as they
might have afforded many interesting particulars,
We will give here the little information which we
have been able to obtain, and of which we guarantee
the authenticity.

LAUKENCE IMBEET, BISHOP.

Laurence Imbert was a Frenchman. God be
stowed upon him a happy inclination to virtue and
knowledge from the time of his birth. He had a
generous and compassionate heart. When he was
yet a boy, hardly seven years old, his father used
to read to him the "Lettres Edifiantes," and his
heart was deeply moved at learning that there were
so many pagan nations in the world who were lost
for want of priests to teach them the truth. He
said to his father : " Some day, I will go and preach
the faith in these distant countries, and save these
souls who are falling into hell." This generous
resolution grew stronger as he advanced in age.
He passed through his course of studies with dis-

COREA. 13

tinction, was ordained priest, and set out for the
missions. He arrived safely in China, where he
spent about fifteen years. His progress in the
study of the language was very rapid. The Bishop
entrusted to him the college where several young
men were preparing for the priesthood. His repu
tation for virtue spread far and wide. He was
appointed Bishop of Capsa, and Yicar Apostolic of
Corea and Liou-Tsou, and set out at once upon
his journey to occupy the post which had been
assigned to him. He made no account of the
innumerable fatigues and dangers which were in
store for him. His journey occupied several
months. He arrived at Seoul, the capital of Corea,
on the first day of the twelfth month of the year,
Ting-iou (28 December, 1837). He applied him
self with eagerness to the study of the language :
in a few months he was sufficient master of it to
hear confessions, and administer the sacraments. He
caused our books of devotion to be translated into
the Corean language from the Chinese. From that
time all were able to understand them, both the
learned and the ignorant, the young and the old.*
His assiduity in prayer, his zeal in preaching the
word of God, and his diligence in his episcopal
labours, were worthy of admiration. Everything
he did was orderly, and even the most unimpor-

* Hitherto the Christians of Corea had been ac
customed to recite their prayers in the Chinese
language, which was only understood by a small
portion of those acquainted with its characters.

14 COREA.

tant actions were performed at their appointed
times. He fasted three times a week. His zeal
frequently made him forget to take sleep and food.
But if he was harsh towards himself, he treated
others with the greatest sweetness. All had the
same ready access to him that children have to their
father.

After he had remained a year in the capital, he
left it for the provinces : he always passed through
the cities and villages on foot. This good example
deeply moved the Christians : sinners were covered
with confusion and returned to better sentiments.
His visits were short : and in a few months he re
turned to SeouL In a short time the persecution
broke out. The Christians were put in chains, and
perished under the sword : those who remained in
prison were in a deplorable condition. Like a good
pastor, the Bishop caused the dead to be buried,
and bestowed upon those who were in prison the
most touching attention : he sent them money and
rice, and even the clothes which he was wearing.
His stay in the capital was not unattended with
danger, and he retired into the provinces to conceal
himself. It would be impossible to describe the
misery and privations which he had to suffer there.
His desire of martyrdom increased from day to day.
The prospect of it, which he had before him, con
soled him in the midst of his sufferings, arid made
them sweet ,and agreeable to him. Alas ! the
heart of man contains depths which it is impos
sible to fathom. A pagan, called Kimiensan, was

COREA. 15

converted, and received the name of John at his
baptism. He was driven out of his father's house
on account of his religion, and was in a state of
great distress, when the Bishop came to his assist
ance, and overwhelmed him with benefits. He
only became more ungrateful. When he was
with Christians he showed external signs of piety,
while he was secretly in consultation with the
officers, as to the means of seizing the mission
aries. We have already related how he succeeded
in delivering up Monsignor Imbert. "When the
Bishop joined the officers he found a large assem
blage of pagans, curious to see a European: he
preached the faith to them, and they listened with
respectful attention. The officers made him sit
upon a chair, carried by bearers, and conveyed him
thus to the capital. During the journey they acted
as his escort : on their arrival at the gates of Seoul
they passed the red cord * round his arms, and
lodged him in the thieves7 prison, called Potseng.
The judge confronted him with Paul Ting,t Augus
tine Liou and Charles Tchao. The Bishop said to
them : " Since every one is aware that there are
three Europeans in the kingdom, it is useless to
make a mystery of it ; only let us not declare the
place of concealment of the other two, let us put
our confidence in the assistance of God, and en-

* It is the custom here to secure cnminals with a
red rope.

f A disciple of the Bishop,

16 COREA.

dure the tortures in silence." The judge had him
brought before his tribunal, and said to him : " Tell
me, where are the other Europeans ?" The answer
of the Bishop is not known. While he was being
tortured by the twisting of his legs, the judge said :
" Why did you enter the kingdom ?" " To rescue
souls from the power of the devil, and guide them
into the way of salvation." " How many persons
have you instructed in your religion?" "Several
hundred." " Where are they?" "They are inno
cent, and you desire to put them to death. I cannot
denounce them." " Will you renounce your God ?"
" I renounce my God ? No, never." The Bishop
answered with emotion, in a loud and firm voice. He
was then taken back to prison. During the next few
days, the search after the Christians was carried on
with the greatest severity, and many were put in
chains. The Bishop, being of opinion that the
presence of the pastor was hurtful to the flock,
wrote to MM. Maubant and Chastan to join him.
A few days after they shared his imprisonment.
The judge made great preparations to intimidate
the prisoners : he made them all three appear be
fore him. " What is the name of the person with
whom you live ?" The Bishop answered ; " He is
called Paul Ting, and is already in your hands."
"Whence do you obtain money to serve for your
maintenance?" "We have brought it from our
native country." " You had nothing to live upon
at home ; you are come here to gain a livelihood."
"You would not say so if you were acquainted

COREA. 17

with our country." " Who sent you to this king
dom ?" "The Pope, the head of our religion."
" Who invited you to come ; by whose assistance
did you enter the kingdom?" "Everything has
been reported to you, you know all ; the Christians
called us to the aid of their souls ; Ting Liou and
Tchao accomplished the rest." The judge then said
in a tone of irony, " Be turn to your country." " In
leaving our country we made the sacrifice of our lives :
before our departure we knew the risk to which we
were exposing them ; but the salvation of souls was
more dear to us than our lives. We shall die here,
and our God will crown us with eternal glory."
" Tell me the places where those of your sect live."
" We should commit a crime in betraying them,
because we should expose them to death." The
confessors underwent the torture of the " board :"
each received three blows. At the first stroke M.
Maubant raised himself up for a moment, crying ;
" The Coreans are indeed cruel." They were then
taken back to prison. A number of mandarins
assembled in this court, and overwhelmed them with
questions for three days. It is not known what
were the questions or the answers given to them.
The prisoners were afterwards transferred to the
royal tribunal,* called Ilemgrou. In this prison a
bell rings day and night, so that the inmates are

* In this court criminals of note are interrogated
by the king in person, through the medium of the
principal ministers.

18 CORE A.

unable to understand one another. When the judge
wishes to interrogate any of them, he sends an
attendant with a message ; the latter delivers it in
the ear of the criminal, and receives his answer ;
they two alone can hear what is said. The con
fessors were interrogated before the court, and each
received seventy blows of the "ruler" on the leg.
They are condemned to death.

PETER MAUBANT, PEIEST.

Peter Maubant was a Frenchman. He was of
an upright disposition, of a grave, dignified, and
imposing deportment, and at the same time affable,
humble, and modest. He suffered much during his
journey from Europe to Asia, and his life was often
in danger. He went first to China, and there made
the acquaintance of Mgr. Brugniere, the first Bishop
of Corea, and arranged with him to follow him to
his vicariate. The Bishop died on the journey, and
the priest found himself the inheritor of his powers.
He entered Corea on the seventh day of the twelfth
month of the year, elmi (26 December, 1835). His
first occupation there was to set in order many
things which had gone wrong. He chose three
pupils to send to Macao for the future requirements
of the mission. He remained in the capital a few-
months, in which time he learned a little of the
language. He then set out for the provinces, and
as he always travelled on foot, he had to suffer

CORE A. 19

many hardships,* especially from hunger and thirst,
so as often to faint by the way. His only food was
a little rice and boiled herbs, and his clothes were
made of coarse linen.

During the whole winter the country is covered
with ice and snow. From prudential motives he
always travelled at night. His shoesf were cut to
pieces by the roads, and his stockings were full of
holes, but he went on with bare feet, saying it was
worth while to suffer something for the sake of
saving souls. He showed great patience in instruct
ing the ignorant and the stupid. But the care of
souls was not the only object of his zeal : it would
be difficult to count the poor persons to whom he
gave food and clothing in those times of scarcity.
"When he received the order of the Bishop to return
he at once notified it to M. Chastan.

* There are nothing but mountains and valleys in
Corea; no roads, for our way of making them is
entirely unknown, so that there are but rough and
difficult paths, often thrown across the sides of
mountains which are almost perpendicular, where a
false step would precipitate one to the bottom of the
valley Five hours of such travelling quite exhausts
the strength of a European.

f Corean shoes are only sandals of rice-straw;
travellers on foot need almost a pair a day.

20 COREA.

JAMES CHASTAN, PKIEST.

James Chastan was a Frenchman who had many
virtues, and was especially distinguished for his
compassion, so that he spread abroad the good
odour of Jesus Christ. He conceived the idea of
preaching the gospel to heathen nations, disregarding
the dangers he would incur. He came by sea to
Siam, where he exercised his zeal for some years,
and then went on to China to employ himself in
the service of the Coreans.

He entered the capital on the ninth day of the
twelfth month of the year Ping-fin (17 December,
1836). He remained there a few months, learnt
the language, and began his ministry. He passed
through many countries, and crossed many high
mountains. It would be impossible to relate all
that he had to suffer. He was most diligent in

O

instructing people both day and night; his kind
ness was extreme, and his disposition so equable
and tranquil, that no one ever heard him say any
thing which denoted the slightest impatience. No one
could come near him without being inflamed with
the love of God. The Christians found united
in him a father's love and a mother's tenderness.
When he saw any one in rags he took off his own
clothes to cover him ; he gave his last penny to the
poor, and even after that procured from others the
means of assisting them. His charity was extended
to Pagans as well as Christians, and as he never

COREA. 21

refused alms to any one, he always returned to the
capital empty-handed. In the space of three years
he travelled three times over four or five provinces.
He was just going to Seoul when the persecution'
•was declared, and many Christians were arrested.
They suffered great privations in prison, at which
he was so much pained, that, as he had nothing to
give, he ordered collections to be made, and the
proceeds to be transmitted to the prisoners.

As soon as he received the letter of M. Maubant,
he set out to join him with all speed. On his way,
he said to the Christians who accompanied him, " I
travel this road as joyfully as if I was going to a
delicious banquet." When he joined his colleague,
they wrote a letter together, to give their last
admonitions to the faithful ; after which they set
out to find the officers. They were immediately
taken to the chief office, where cangues were put
upon their necks, and one of their hands fastened
to them ; a large veil was thrown over their heads,
and in that guise they were put on horseback, and
conducted to the capital.

As the three prisoners were foreigners, the law
did not determine the penalty to be adopted in their
case : they were therefore treated as enemies of the
state. The mode of execution which was employed
in their case, was different from the ordinary treat
ment of criminals. On the fourteenth day of the
eighth moon, in the year Ki-hai (21 December,
1839), a military mandarin of high rank went to
the prison, attended by 127 soldiers. Three litters

22 COREA.

had been roughly made up, consisting of a straw
seat between two long poles. The missionaries
were seated in these with their hands tied behind
their backs, and, surrounded by the escort of soldiers
and an immense crowd of people, were conveyed to
a spot on the bank of the river situated at the
distance of a league from the city. The three
Europeans had no clothes but their shirts and trou
sers. Upon a pole in the middle of the plain a flag
was flying, upon which was written the crime for
which they were condemned. The soldiers were
drawn up in a ring round them. After the shirts of
the prisoners had been taken off, water was thrown
in their faces, and also some handfuls of lime.
Then six men carried them round the ring three
times, each sitting astride upon a pole. After this
cruel and grotesque mockery they were made to
kneel down, two arrows were passed through their
ears, and a rope fastened to their hair,* by which
their heads were kept in an upright position. A
dozen soldiers armed with sabres manoeuvred round
them as though fighting, and struck the martyrs on
the neck as they passed by them. When M.
Chastan received the first blow on his shoulder,
he raised himself for an instant and then fell on his
knees again. A soldier took the heads, as soon as
they were cut off, and placed them on a board to
present to the mandarin, who returned to inform the
Court of the execution.

* The Coreans allow their hair to grow long, and
tie it in a knot on the top of their head.

COREA. 23

According to the laws of the kingdom the bodies
of criminals should remain on the place of execution
during three days : after that period their kinsmen
are permitted to remove them. While the remains
of the three martyrs were thus lying exposed, some
Christians attempted to carry them away, but were
unable at first to do so, as officers in disguise were
keeping guard on all sides. After three weeks had
elapsed, eight of them, disregarding the danger of
death, penetrated by night to the place of martyr
dom. About half a foot of earth had been thrown
over their bodies. They disinterred them and found
nothing but bones, some of which had been gnawed
by wild beasts: they collected them and buried
them at a short distance from Seoul. Every day
a crowd of persons of all ranks came to pray over
their tomb : but, as this devotion might have been
attended with evil consequences, the Catechists
caused the remains of the martyrs to be removed to
the summit of a lofty mountain apart from any
dwelling. The bones are mixed : the head of the
Bishop can alone be recognized: one of the three
heads has been lost.

AUGUSTINE Y,

HIS WIFE BARBARA, AND THEIR DAUGHTER AGATHA.

Y belonged to a family of distinction. Before
his conversion to Christianity he was a man who
was fond of society and pleasure. At the age of

24 COREA.

thirty he heard the faith discussed and embraced it.
From that time forward his life became most ex
emplary. After he lost his property in the perse
cutions, he endured poverty with great patience.
Teaching the ignorant, preaching to sinners, in
structing the pagans in the truths of religion, were
the occupations to which he devoted himself, in
company with his wife, who was as pious as himself.

A great number of pagans might be mentioned
as having been converted by his preaching. He was
seized with all his family in the month of March,
in the year 1839, and conveyed to the prison of
Potseng.*

When he was brought before the judge, and com
manded by him to renounce his faith and betray
the other Christians, he showed great firmness and
courage. He was then severely beaten and trans
ferred to the prison of Kientso. When the judge of
that court perceived among his family children still
young and delicate, he was moved to pity, and
employed both promises and menaces, in the hope
of impairing his resolution, but all was in vain. The
judge then became furious, caused him to be beaten
cruelly, sent back to the other prison those of his
children who were by law incapable of being
beheaded, and then said to Augustine : " Say but
one word, and you will free yourself, your wife,
your brother, and your children, and recover your
property." "My faith," answered Augustine, "is

* The prison in which thieves are confined.

COREA. 25

dearer to me than all I have in the world ; I would
lose everything rather than renounce it." His legs
were rubbed with the triangular stick, and the judge
then said to him : " Come now, supposing that you
set no value on your own life, will you not have
pity on your wife and children ?" " I love my wife
and my children, and for that very reason I will not
give them an example of weakness." " Let him be
beaten until he dies," said the judge in a passion.
The flesh fell off in lumps from the body of Augus
tine, his face and clothes, and the whole of his body,
were covered with blood. The spectators turned
aside in horror. His sentence was delivered, and
carried into execution on the 24th of May, 1839.
He was beheaded at the age of fifty three.

It is easy to imagine what the mother's heart of
Barbara underwent at the sight of the torments of
her children; she offered her sufferings up as a
sacrifice to God. She remained in prison six
months, and was unmoved by the tortures inflicted
upon her. On the 3rd of September, 1839, she was
beheaded, at the age of forty- six.

Their daughter Agatha was sent back to the
prison of Potseng : this, however, only caused her
to suffer more. In the space of ten months, during
which her captivity in this fearful prison lasted,
she had to endure hunger, cold, sickness, and the
horrors of her dungeon ; she received three hundred
blows with a stick, and ninety with the board ; but
her constancy was unshaken. She was strangled

26 COREA.

in prison on the 17th of January, 1840, when she
was fifteen years of age.

DAMIAN NAM AND MAEY HIS WIFE.

Nam reckoned many mandarins among his ances
tors. At the age of thirty, he became acquainted
with the faith, and embraced Christianity. His
zeal for his own sanctification and for that of others,
attracted the attention of the bishop, and he was
appointed a catechist. His house was used by the
faithful as an oratory, and the missionaries fre
quently lodged there. During the persecution he
gave shelter to many persons, and they used laugh
ingly to say to him : " what will posterity say of
you ?" " It is my one desire," answered he, " that
it should be said that Damian Nam was a martyr
of Jesus Christ.'' He was captured one night with
all his family. The episcopal ornaments, which he
kept in his house, fell into the hands of the officers.
The captives were confined in the Potseng. From
the part of the prison which he occupied, Damian
overheard his wife upbraiding the gaolers with their
want of respect towards her, and cried out to her in
a loud voice : "we are prisoners for the sake of
Jesus Christ, and should therefore be like lambs
destined to death : let us imitate Him, and not lose
so good an opportunity of suffering for the glory of
His name." Mary heard him say this, 'and from
that time forward, endured both pain and insult
without uttering a word of complaint.

COREA. 27

When the day dawned, the judge ordered Damian
to be brought before his tribunal: "Tell me
honestly at once, to whom this great cap (speaking
of the mitre which he had before him) and these
vestments of sacrifice belong, and where they have
come from." " Our priest Tcheou* used them
formerly, it was he who brought them from China."
" That is false : these marks of sweat are recent,
and prove that they have been used at a later
period : this cap besides has the appearance of being
new." Damian made no answer. " Abandon this
foreign religion, and save your own life, and the
lives of your wife and children." "My religion,
which you call foreign, is of all times and of all
places : I have known and practised it for eight
years, and I will never renounce it." " You are
acquainted with the Christians, tell me the houses
•where they live." "Among the commandments
of our God there is one which forbids us to do injury
to our neighbour, so I cannot denounce them." He
was examined several days consecutively, and at each
interrogatory he underwent cruel tortures. He was
then removed to Kientso, and the judge of that
court asked him the same questions. " Torture me
till I expire, if you will, I have but one thing to say ;
I am a Christian, and I will remain one until my
death: you will get no other answer from me."
The judge ordered that he should thrice receive
thirty blows of the " ruler," on the leg, and con-

# A Chinese priest martyred in 1801.

28 COREA.

demned him. to death. A few days before the
execution, Damian wrote to his wife : " This world
is only a place of travel; our home is in heaven.
We are suffering for the Lord's sake ; a few more
hours of pain, and we shall meet for ever in the
abode of glory." He went quite joyfully to the
place of execution, and never ceased praying up to
the moment when his head fell under the sword of
the executioner, on the 24th of May, 1839. He
was thirty-eight years of age.

His wife Mary possessed a more than ordinary
amount of intelligence and courage. Full of piety
and zeal, she used to prepare persons of her own
sex in the house of her husband, to receive the
sacraments worthily. To the tortures which she
endured in her own person, were added those of
her son, then twelve years old. Almost daily,
messages were sent to her, that he had been beaten
with rods, or that he was dying of hunger, or
wasting away with the fevers of the pestilent dun
geons. Her heart was pierced with sorrow, but she
remained steadfast. After frequently suffering tor
ture, she was beheaded on the 3rd of September,
1839, at the age of thirty six.

PETER KOUEN.

Peter was born of Christian parents. His family
was extremely poor, although it belonged to the
second class of citizens.* He gained his livelihood

* There are four classes of citizens in Corea : the

COREA. 29

by carrying on a small trade. As he was naturally
of an amiable disposition, the Christians of the
provinces used to have recourse to him, when they
came to the capital to buy goods : and he attended
to them with the utmost regularity. But, what
is still more to his praise, he was most exact in
fulfilling his religious duties. He was captured in
the month of December, 1838, and tortured cruelly :
but his constancy never failed. The judge said to
him : " Why do you practise the religion of the
Lord of Heaven ?" " God created heaven and
earth, and He is the Father of all men. He heaps
so many benefits upon them, that, whatever they
do, they cannot pay Him back the ten thousandth
part. In gratitude for each one of His favours,
I honour Him, and will honour Him always,
whether you will it or no." The judge, in a rage,
ordered the executioners to beat him, and afterwards
said to him : " Denounce the people of your sect.' '
" My religion forbids me to do injury to my neigh
bour ; how then can I let a word escape my lips
which would pierce their hearts like a sword?"
After some time, he was transferred to Kientso.
The judge of that court had some good qualities,
and condemned Christians to death with the greatest
reluctance. He would use every kind of persuasion
to draw from them a single word of apostasy, that

nobility, who alone are entitled to hold high digni
ties ; the burghers, who can aspire to lesser offices ;
the lowest class, and the slaves.

SO COREA.

he might dismiss them to their homes. He used
to say to them : " You Christians are indeed strange
people, you might be expected to beg me to spare
your lives, as other criminals do ; but, on the con
trary, it is I who beseech you to preserve them
yourselves. Speak but one word, and all is at an
end, and you may return home." The kindness
of this judge, however, was no less cruel to the
faithful, since he prolonged their lives in hopes of
forcing them to apostatise, and thus caused them
double sufferings. He acted in this manner in the
case of Peter. He left it to the discretion of the
criminals in prison to torture him, and the latter
fully carried out his intention. They overwhelmed
the sufferer with blows, and twice left him for dead.
Peter underwent three interrogatories, and at each
of them suffered the punishment of the " triangular
stick." His flesh was detached from the bones,
and scattered over the ground. His tranquillity
remained unaltered, and heavenly calmness and joy
overspread his countenance. The officers, as they
were conducting him back from the court to prison,
said to him by order of the judge : " You have
but to utter a single word, it matters not whether it
be true or false, only say that you are not a Chris
tian, and you are at once dismissed. Afterwards
you can practise your religion as much as you
please." " My religion," replied Peter, ^'is dearer
to me than all else in the world, to abandon it would
be worse than death." He was condemned to be
beheaded. His joy was redoubled as he was going to

COREA. 31

the place of execution. A smile was visible upon
his countenance, even after his head was severed
from his body. He was martyred on the 24th
of May 1839, in the thirty-fifth year of his age.

AGATHA Y, WIDOW.

Agatha lost her father at an early age. Her
mother greatly neglected her religious instruction,
and married her to a pagan,* who, at the end of
three years left her a widow, and childless. She
returned to her father's house, received instruction
in the Christian religion, and practised it in the
most exemplary manner. After the death of her
father the property of the family gradually dimin
ished, and was at length exhausted. She had to
suffer much on account of her poverty, and endured
all without complaint. She was seized in the
early part of the year 1835, but remained firm
when tempted to apostatise and to betray the
Christians. The judge handed her over to the
executioners, who, after stripping her of her
clothes, suspended her by the arms, and beat
her with rods until her body was bruised all over.
As she remained inflexible, she was condemned
to death. Agatha endured the sufferings and
privations of her prison for four years, without

* Before the arrival of the Missionaries, the
Coreans, both children and adults, received bap
tism only in articulo mortis.

32 COREA.

showing the least weakness. At length her suf
ferings came to an end ; she was beheaded on the
24th of May, 1839, at the age of fifty-six.

MAGDALEN KIM, WIDOW.

The parents of Magdalen were poor. Her father
departed from this world soon after her birth. She
lived under the guardianship of her mother, a bad
and ill-tempered woman. Notwithstanding the
evil example which she had before her, she con
tinued the practice of virtue from her infancy.
She desired to preserve her virginity, but her
mother compelled her to marry. After a few years
she lost her husband and children, and returned
to her mother's house. It would be impossible to
relate all she had to suffer from the bad disposition
of the latter ; but nevertheless she was always
submissive to her, and never allowed herself to be
wanting in the discharge of her filial duties. She
suffered all patiently and sweetly, and without
complaint. In order to try her, and render her
more perfect, God permitted that her mother should
live to a great age. She was well acquainted with
her religion, and used to preach it to the pagans,
of whom she converted several. The baptism of
dying children was also one of the special objects
of her zeal. She had an ardent desire of shedding
her blood for the glory of Jesus Christ. When she
was seized and brought before the judge, in the
year 1836, she boldly explained to him the mys-

COREA. 33

teries of our faith. Her courage made her triumph
over her executioners and their tortures. After
she was condemned to be beheaded, she remained
for three years in prison, where she had to endure
a longer and more glorious martyrdom. At length
she consummated it on the 24th of May, 1839, at
the age of sixty-six.

BAKBAEA HAU, WIDOW.

The parents of Barbara were Christians, and
brought her up in the faith from her infancy;
but she profited little by their instructions. After
passing her youth in carelessness and dissipation,
she married a pagan. One day her mother, as she
was going to visit her, met at the door Magdalen
Kim, of whom we have spoken above. They both
went in, and earnestly entreated her to change her
life ; it was a moment of grace for Barbara ; she
was converted, and from that time forward was an
example of all Christian virtues. God willed to
try her, and took away her husband and children
one after the other. When she was not more than
thirty years of age, she returned to her mother's
house, and lived with her in the practice of virtue.
She fasted very frequently : and being animated with
zeal for the glory of God and the salvation of souls,
she preached to the pagans and baptized their dying
children, and exhorted sinners to penance. She was
captured with Magdalen Kim, and after suffering in
her company both the tortures of the executioners
s

34 COREA.

and the pains of the prison, was beheaded on the
same day, at the age of forty -eight.

ANNE PAK.

Anne was born in a small village situated on the
banks of the river which flows by the capital. Her
parents were Christians. As she was naturally
slow and backward, she had great difficulty in
learning the truths of religion. She consoled herself
by saying, ei Since I cannot know my God as I
should desire to do, I will at least endeavour to love
Him with all my heart." At the age of eighteen
she was married to a Christian, and brought up her
children in sentiments of religion. She felt particu
lar devotion in meditating on the Passion of our
Lord: the sight of His five wounds was sufficient
to draw abundant tears from her eyes. When she
heard persecution mentioned, her countenance,
far from growing pale, became, on the contrary,
more animated. She was arrested with her hus
band and eldest son. The latter had numerous
friends at Court, who did all in their power to
make them apostatise, and at length effected their
purpose: they were then set at liberty. Anne,
however, remained firm. A hundred times the
judge tried to shake her determination by severity
or by kindness, but his endeavours were vain. Very
frequently she suffered torture till pieces of her
flesh fell on the ground, and her bones were laid
bare. Her husband and son came to see her daily

COREA. 35

and entreated her to say but one word, and leave
the prison. They represented to her the desolation
of her family, her old mother at the point of death,
her children crying out for her, but her resolution,
stronger than the ties of flesh and blood, succeeded
in overcoming this temptation, more dreadful than
any torture. She reproached them with their base
ness. " What," she said, " for a few days of life
will you expose yourselves to everlasting death?
Instead of soliciting me to transgress, you should
exhort me to remain steadfast. Return, return
rather to God, and envy me my happiness." The
judge said to her : " Your husband and son have
left the prison and returned to their family ; with
one word you may do the same ; they conjure you
to speak, and you remain unmoved ; your heart is
of bronze, you have no feelings. Do you think life
an evil ?" Anne answered : "If my husband and
my son have apostatised it is their own affair. For
my part I am resolved to preserve my faith and to
die for it." The judge ordered her to be beaten
with the ruler, and then condemned her to death.
Anne remained in prison for three months, and
received the crown of martyrdom on the 24th of
May, 1839, at the age of fifty-seven.

AGATHA KIM, WIDOW.

It is the ordinary way of God, in dealing with
the world, to make use of the weakest and lowliest
as instruments in confounding all that is strong and

36 COREA.

powerful. THis is well shown in the following
account.

Agatha Kim was born of pagan parents, living in
extreme poverty: she was of excessively limited
powers of mind. One of her sisters, a Christian, was
desirous of drawing her to Christianity, and used
every endeavour to teach her the essential truths of
the faith, but was unable to succeed. Of all her
daily instructions Agatha only remembered the names
of Jesus and Mary. Her husband was a zealous
pagan, addicted to innumerable superstitions. As
Agatha was only superficially acquainted with the
faith, she used to follow his example. One day
her sister came to see her and convinced her of the
vanity of idols and the folly of those who place their
trust in them. Agatha immediately threw them
into the fire, without troubling herself as to what
her husband might say to her. Since she was
unable to acquire the necessary knowledge and
prayers, she could not receive baptism. She was
arrested in 1836, and brought before the court of
the Potseng. The judge said to her : " You are
weak enough to believe that the teaching of the
Christians is true." Agatha answered : " I am a
poor wretched creature, and I only know Jesus and
Mary : I have learnt nothing more." " Your bones
shall be broken, and you shall be beaten, until you
expire, if you will not renounce Jesus and Mary."
"Were it necessary to die, I will never renounce
Jesus and Mary." During the interrogatories and
tortures which she underwent, the only words which

CORE A. 37

she uttered were the names of our Saviour and Ills
holy Mother. Her faith, although but little en
lightened, remained unshaken, and her courage
excited universal admiration. The judge was
unable to overcome her determination, and sent
her to the Kientso. When she entered the prison
the Christians said laughingly to her, " Ah, here is
Agatha, who knows Jesus and Mary, and nothing
else." They praised her intrepidity, instructed her
in the necessary truths, and baptized her. After
she had gained new strength in the sacrament of
regeneration, she underwent the three interrogato
ries in the court of Kientso with equal fortitude,
making the same answers as have been given above.
The judge condemned her to be beheaded, but this
sentence was not carried out until the twenty-fourth
of May, 1839. She went to execution in company
with eight other martyrs, with the same firmness
that she had displayed before her judges. She was
fifty-four years of age.

LUCY PAK,

MAID OF HONOUR TO THE QUEEN.

Lucy belonged to a rich family. Distinguished
for beauty and talent, she was introduced at the
court and placed among the queen's maids of
honour. Her ability, prudence, and sweetness of
manner, raised her above her companions, and ob
tained for her the first place amongst them. She

38 CORE A.

succeeded, although a pagan, in preserving herself
pure and chaste in the midst of license. At the
age of thirty she heard Christianity spoken of, and
conceived a great desire of practising it. This was
impossible at court. She therefore returned to her
family under the pretext of sickness. As her
mother was no more, and her father refused to hear
the faith spoken of, she left her family and retired
to the house of one of her relations. In the course
of a few months the whole family became Christian.
Lucy, rejoicing in the treasure which she had dis
covered in the faith, never ceased thanking God for
His gift. She renounced the vain pomps of the
world, and devoted herself to the exercise of Chris
tian humility. She felt especial sweetness in medi
tating at the foot of a crucifix. The sight of the
Five "Wounds of Jesus made her tears flow. Her
words and actions were a sacrifice of praise which
she daily offered to God, and in mortification and
fervour she was the model of the rest. When the
persecution broke out, she retired to the house of
one of her friends, named Agatha Tsen, and the
two families were united. One day they were
discussing the course which they should take to
avoid being arrested, when the officers suddenly
appeared before them. " It is the will of God/'
said they ; " we must suffer for His sake." Far
from being troubled, Lucy went to meet them,
brought them into the house, and ordered meat and
drink to be prepared for them. When she was
brought before the tribunal, the judge said to her :

COREA. 39

<s You are not one of the common people, how is it
that you follow so contemptible a religion?" " Our
religion has nothing contemptible in it," answered
lAicy ; " God has created heaven and earth, and all
that they contain ; all men owe their being to Him,
and in consequence their praise and adoration."
" Eenounce your religion and denounce your ac
complices." " God is my Creator and my Father, I
cannot deny Him; He forbids me to injure my
brethren, I cannot betray them." The judge
ordered her to be taken to the Kientso, with her
hands tied behind her back. Before the latter
tribunal Lucy was cruelly beaten; her legs were
tortured until little more than the bones remained.
In the midst of the blows a supernatural calmness
was visible in her countenance. " Now," she said,
" I begin to understand a little the sufferings of
Jesus Christ and of His holy Mother, until now I
had never formed a just idea of them." In the
course of two or three days her legs became per
fectly well, and appeared even stronger than before.
This extraordinary cure surprised every one, but
the judge in his blindness attributed it to the
use of magic. During the interrogatory she ex
plained the faith so clearly that the mandarin was
unable to reply, and kept silence. He condemned
her to death, but she remained two months in
prison, and supported vrith constancy all its priva
tions. She wrote a letter to the Christians, in which
she exhorted them to be patient in their tribu
lation, and to remain firm in the faith; she also

40 COREA.

spoke so affectingly of the blessings of God, that
the readers shed tears. It is to be lamented that
this letter has baen lost. During the time of her
captivity she exercised the functions of an apostle ;
encouraging the Christians by her words and exam
ple, consoling the afflicted, and sustaining the weak.
She approached the place of execution praying, and
was beheaded at the age of thirty-nine, on the 24th
of May, 1839.

MARY HEING.

Mary possessed an upright spirit and a com
passionate heart. She lived in perfect peace with
her sister, and practised all the duties of a Chris
tian. Her love towards God, and her charity
towards her neighbour, made her even in her own
poverty find means to assist the poor. She was
seized with her sister, and endured with firmness
the torments of the prison to which she was con
signed. After five months of captivity and suffer
ing, she was beheaded on the 24th of May, 1839,
in the thirty-fourth year of her age.

The execution of the Christians is conducted in
the following manner, and is identical with that
of criminals condemned to suffer capital punishment.
On the appointed day a cart is brought to the gate
of the prison, and in the middle of it is, -raised a
cross, higher than the ordinary stature of a man.
"When all is ready, tjia, executioner takes the con
demned person (Xv^i^Hsli^uJ^rs, and binds him to

^'LIBRARY]'

COREA. 41

the cross by the arms and by the hair, placing a
piece of wood under his feet to sustain him: he
then gives the signal for departure. As soon as
the procession arrives at the western gate of the
city, which is situated at the top of a steep bank,
the executioner removes the board from beneath the
feet of the sufferer, and the driver drives the
oxen rapidly down the hill. As the road is
rough, and covered with stones, the cart jolts
dreadfully, and the body of the martyr, now
only sustained by the arms and the head, is thrown
violently to the right and to the left, so as to cause
horrible suffering. At the foot of the hill is the
place of execution. The executioner unbinds the
Christian, and strips him of his clothes: he then
makes him lay his head on a block of wood, and
cuts it off.

On the twentieth of July, 1839, the following
eight martyrs were beheaded outside the western

JOHN BAPTIST Y.

John was the younger brother of Augustine,
whose martyrdom has been already related. He
embraced Christianity with his elder brother, when
he was twenty-eight years old. His fervour at
tracted the attention of the catechists, who sent
him to Pekin in the suite of the embassy, to nego
tiate affairs of religion. He performed this jour-

42 COREA.

ney twice. The priests of the capital, in admi
ration of his piety, conferred upon him baptism and
the other sacraments. John Baptist, after his
return to his country, abstained from flesh meat
during the rest of his life, and made a resolution
to live in celibacy. His exterior was that of a man
absorbed in God, and on this account the Christians
used to say that he had received in the sacraments
the fulness of the Holy Ghost. He had a great
desire to shed his blood for Jesus Christ. He was
arrested with his brother, and underwent the same
tortures as the latter with equal constancy. After
sentence was passed upon him, he remained in
prison for six months, and thus increased his reward.
He received the palm of martyrdom at the age of
thirty-nine.

MAGDALEN Y,

HER MOTHER MAGDALEN, TERESA HER AUNT, BARBARA
HER SISTER, AND BARBARA HER NIECE.*

Magdalen Y belonged to a family of noble descent,
but possessed of little property. Her father was a
pagan, and held the Christian religion in abhorrence.
This obliged Magdalen, her mother, her aunt, and
her sister, to practise it in secret. When she be-

* The Christian women of Corea hnve, for some
reason which is not known, an extraordinary devo
tion to S. Barbara, and if it were permitted them,
would almost all bear the name of this saint.

COREA. 43

came of an age to marry, her father wished to give
her in marriage to a pagan: in this extremity
Magdalen resolved to preserve her virginity by
flying from her father's house. She had a young
Christian slave for her maid ; and this was the plan
which she devised. One evening she took the
servant into her confidence, and said to her :
" The distance from here to the capital is three
leagues : I do not know the way, but my father
is to go there to-morrow; you must follow him
at a distance without losing sight of him, and I in
my turn will follow you in the same way." During
the night she made her preparation, changed her
clothes for others, old and worn out, and went out
privately, carrying with her the clothes which she
had taken off. The house was situated in the moun
tain, not far from a forest. Magdalen went into
the wood, sprinkled the clothes with her blood, tore
them up, and threw the pieces about in different
directions. Her father set out at an early hour on
his way to the city, the slave after him, and
Magdalen after the slave. When she reached the
capital, she went to the house of her aunt Teresa.
" Oh my God!" cried the latter, " what a state you
are in ! what misfortune have you to tell me ?"
Magdalen was dressed in rags, and covered all over
with blood. " Hush," she replied, "\you shall know
all; say no more." She then related everything
that had taken place. She had not finished speak
ing when word was brought that her father was at

44 COREA.

the door. She hastily retired to a place apart,
while her father entered and greeted his sister.

In the meantime at Magdalen's home all are
astonished at her not making her appearance. They
call her, hut there is no answer ; they open the door
of her room, but no one is there, they seek her
everywhere in vain. The uneasiness of her mother
may be easily imagined. Her uncle leaves the
house and penetrates into the wood; seeing
marks of blood he grows pale ; he follows them
up and reaches the bloody shreds of her clothes.
He immediately proceeds in haste to the city,
and sorrowfully enters the house in which his
brother was still conversing with Teresa : " Misery !
misery !" cried he, " the tiger has devoured our
child." "My child!" said the father, and fell
senseless to the ground. He was brought to him
self again ; nothing was heard but loud cries and
weeping. Teresa alone was acquainted with the
secret, and that she might not betray it, she wept
like the rest. The two brothers returned in haste to
their family, and informed the mandarin of the mis
fortune which had happened. The mandarin sent
out some men to kill the tiger ; but they searched
every corner of the forest without meeting with any
tiger. The relations of Magdalen passed three
months in tears and lamentation. Meanwhile her
mother became acquainted with the secret, and from
that time appeared less sorrowful. Her husband per
ceived it, and suspected that his daughter was not
dead. He said to his wife : " You seem to be less

CORE A. 45

sad than you have been hitherto, tell me the truth,
is our daughter still living ? Tell me all, I pledge
myself not to oppose in any way her desire for the
future." His wife informed him of the circum
stances. The father rushed in a transport of joy
to the house in which his daughter was concealed,
embraced her tenderly, and said to her : " It is
enough for me to find you still alive ; henceforth fol
low your own inclination, I no longer oppose your
remaining unmarried." Thus Magdalen preserved
her chastity from danger. Her father even allowed
her to remain with her aunt, and to practise her
religion with perfect freedom.

Her elder sister Barbara found herself exposed
to danger under circumstances nearly similar. She
had been promised in marriage to a pagan, and as
the time fixed for the ceremony approached, she
felt a virtuous abhorrence of a marriage* contrary
to the laws of the Church. She professed to be
suffering from a malady in the legs, and remained
in a sitting posture for three months. Her be
trothed sought his fortune elsewhere. A Christian,
who was acquainted with the cause of her illness,
asked her of her father, who granted the request.
At the end of two years he left her a widow. As

* In this barbarous country parents promise their
children in marriage, and even marry them without
regarding the feelings of the latter, who have to
bow their head beneath the yoke without saying a
word. Thus there are few happy marriages and
numerous domestic quarrels.

46 COREA.

Barbara could not practise her religion as she de
sired in the family of her husband, she went and
lived with her aunt and sister. They spent several
years together in the exercise of virtue and in ex
treme poverty. In the month of March, 1839, their
mother came to the city to make her confession,
and went to the house of Teresa, where she also
found two other Christians, named Martha and
Lucy Kim. The persecution was then raging in
all its violence, and the conversation turned on the
happiness of shedding one's blood for Jesus Christ.
These six courageous women took the resolution
of going out to seek martyrdom. Just at this mo
ment the news was brought them that the house of
Damian Nam had been broken into, and that the
officers were pillaging it. They immediately went
out, and presented themselves before the latter:
" You are at war with the Christians," said they,
" here are six of them, bind us and take us to
prison." The officers in their surprise refused to
believe them. " We are Christians ; do not doubt,
here is a proof of it," they replied, holding up their
rosaries.

The officers bound their hands behind their backs,
and led them to prison. The judge ordered them
to be brought before his tribunal, and addressed
them as follows : " Do you believe that the doc
trine of the Christians is the true one ?" " Cer
tainly, if we had any doubt on this point, we should
not now be here before you." "Renounce this
religion, and give up to me the books which treat

COREA. 47

of it." " We would rather die than deny our God."
They underwent the torture of bending the legs
four times, but remained perfectly firm. After
five days had elapsed the judge ordered them to
appear before him again. "Have not the tortures
which you have endured, and the horrors of prison,
awakened you from your lethargy?" "You are
losing time in exhorting us to apostasy. To give
testimony to Jesus Christ we have given ourselves
into your power, and you wish us to deny Him.
No, no, you are mistaken, a true Christian lives
and dies for his God. If by the laws of the king
dom we are condemned to death, we will die ; but
renounce our religion? no, never." They suffered
each in turn the same torture. When they were
remanded to the second court, the judge said to
them : " Do you still believe the teaching of the
Christians to be true ?" " We believe it to be
true, we honour God, and are willing to shed our
blood for His sake." The judge, in a passion,
ordered that they should be beaten more severely
than the rest, because they had surrendered them
selves of their own free will, and as he could not
weaken their resolution he condemned them to
death. On the 20th of July, Magdalen Y, aged
31, and her aunt Teresa, aged 53, had their heads
cut off. Her sister Barbara was executed on the
3rd of September, at the age of 41 ; their mother
Magdalen on the 26th of September, at the age of
67. The account of Martha and Lucy Kim will
be found below.

48 COREA.

Barbara Y, belonging to the same family, was
left an orphan in her infancy. She had to endure
the privations of poverty, and was distinguished for
her virtue among the children of her age. She
was arrested in the month of March, and taken to
the Potseng, where she endured all the tortures
with great firmness. The judge, unable to make
her apostatise, transferred her to the Kientso. The
judge of this latter court several times endeavoured
to gain her over by kind means, but could not
influence her. He was astonished at such con
stancy in a girl of fourteen, and pitying her ex
treme youth, sent her back to the Potseng, where
she underwent fresh torments, hunger, cold, stripes,
and sickness. At length she was strangled in
prison.

MARTHA KIM.

Martha was born of pagan parents, in a village
not far from Seoul. As she disagreed with her
husband, she left him secretly, and went to the
capital, where she lived with a blind old man, a
magician by profession. While she was in this
house she heard the faith discussed, and conceived
a desire to embrace it. She left the house of the
magician, where she was living in ease, and became
poor for the love of Jesus Christ. She was one
of the six women who voluntarily surrendered them
selves to the officers. She wras tortured in her legs
five times, and also in other ways, and after

COREA. 49

remaining in prison five months was beheaded on the
20th of July, at the age of thirty-four.

LUCY KIM.

Lucy was born at a small town situated on the
banks of the river which flows along the walls of
the capital. Her father, who was a pagan, departed
this life in the flower of his age. Her mother was
a fervent Christian, and brought her up from in
fancy according to the law of God. Lucy was
possessed of remarkable beauty, great sweetness
of disposition, much talent, and a courage beyond
her sex. She thought little, however, of natural
advantages, and consecrated her virginity to God
by vow. At the death of her mother, she and
her sister were obliged to sell their small property
to defray the expenses of the funeral. Being then
without further resources, she asked shelter of Chris
tian families, passing from one to another that she
might not always be a burden upon the same people.
She was frequently recommended to marry, but
remained faithful to her resolution. It has already
been related how she surrendered herself to the
officers. She was brought into court with her hands
bound behind her back : the judge said to her,
" How comes it that you, who are so largely en
dowed with natural gifts, practise the religion of
the Christians?" " I believe it to be the true one,
and for that reason I practise it." " Now you will
have to abandon it to save your life." " I cannot

50 COREA.

do so." "If you are beaten, and your body is
mangled, will you not renounce it ?" " I worship
God, and cannot deny Him, even if I should have to
die under the torture." "Tell me wherefore you
cannot deny Him." " God has created heaven and
earth, spirits and men, and governs them in His
providence. He is the King and the Father of
mankind ; He rewards the good and punishes the
wicked. These are the reasons for which I cannot
deny Him." " Who instructed you in your reli
gion ? How long have you practised it ?" " From
my childhood my mother told me of God, and
taught me to love Him." " You know some of the
Christians, because they received you into their
houses ; inform me where they live." " I cannot
injure my benefactors, murder is forbidden by my
religion." " "Why do you not marry ?" " I am
but twenty years old, there is yet time ; and besides
you have no business to speak of marriage to a girl
like me." " You are right : — in your books the soul
is frequently mentioned, what sort of a thing is this
soul ?" " The soul is a spiritual substance, which
cannot be perceived by material eyes." " Where
is it ?" " The soul is in every part of the body,
and is the cause of its motion, the principle of its
life ; when the soul is withdrawn the body remains
immoveable." "Are you not afraid to die?" "I
fear death and I love life, but for my God I abandon
life and give myself up to death." " Have you ever
seen God?" "I see His works, and I believe in
His existence: this great world, and the order

COREA. 51

which pervades it, are to me sufficient proofs that
He is the author of it. The people in the provinces
have never seen the king, yet they believe that he
exists." The judge, moved by her youth and
beauty, desired to withdraw her from death by
making her apostatise. He employed persuasion
and threats, and afterwards torture, but in vain,
for Lucy confounded him by her answers. She was
condemned to death, and the sentence was carried
out on the twentieth of July. While in prison she
wrote down her examination, and sent it to the
Christians.

ANNE KIM, WIDOW.

Anne Kim was born in the capital, of poor Chris
tian parents, and lived from her childhood in the
practice of virtue. She became a widow at an early
age. After the death of her husband she lived with
her aged mother, and cheerfully endured the priva
tions of poverty. As she lived in a neighbouring
house to that of Augustine and John Baptist Y, she
was arrested at the same time, and underwent the
same tortures. After remaining in prison for five
months she was beheaded, in the fifty-first year of
her age.

HOSE KIM, WIDOW.

Rose was a pngan. There were, however, some
Christians among her relations, and this afforded
her an opportunity of becoming acquainted with

52 COREA.

their religion, which she embraced after the death
of her husband. Rejoicing in the treasure which
she had discovered in the faith, she desired to make
others sharers in it, and became very zealous for the
propagation of the Gospel. The people of her
own family were the principal objects of her zeal.
In December, 1838, the officers entered her house
unexpectedly and captured her. Rose went cheer
fully to prison, invoking the holy names of Jesus
and Mary. The judge caused the instruments of
torture to be brought before her, and then said to
her : " Before your legs are bent, and your body is
torn to pieces, renounce the Lord of heaven, and
denounce your accomplices." " I cannot deny my
God, I cannot betray the Christians." "And
why ?" " God is the Creator and the Father of all
men ; He loves virtue and punishes vice ; He has
prepared for the virtuous eternal rewards, and
punishments without end for the wicked ; to deny
Him is a crime which I ought not to commit; to do
injury to my neighbour is an evil action, from which
I must abstain. Press me no further, it is in vain ;
I am ready to seal with my blood the truths which
I speak." " The king forbids this religion." " I
belong to my God before belonging to the king."
The judge in a rage ordered her to be tortured, but
Rose was invincible. After seven months of severe
captivity her sentence was carried out. She was
fifty-six years old. ^

CORE A. 53

MAEY OUEN.

The parents of Mary lived in the country; they
left her an orphan at an early age. She came to
live with one of her relations at the capital, and
supported herself there by working embroidery.
Although youthful in years, she combined in her
conduct the prudence of mature age, with a heart
which was upright, humble, sweet, and amiable. By
her virtues she became an object of admiration to
all who surrounded her. She consecrated her vir
ginity to Jesus Christ. In the month of March the
officers entered the house suddenly in the middle of
the night. Mary had time to escape by a private
way, but she was captured while wandering about the
city in search of shelter. At first she had been dis
turbed in mind, but she soon became calm, and
went with a firm step to the prison. Her hands
were bound behind her back, and she was led before
the tribunal. The judge said to her, " You are of
the sect of the Christians." " You have said it, I
am a Christian." " Abandon that religion and your
life will be spared." " I worship God ; I desire to
save my soul ; my mind is made up ; if it is neces
sary for me to die I will die; but the salvation of my
soul I prize above all else, and I should lose it were
I to abandon my religion." Her legs were twisted,
and she was beaten with the "long rod." She
suffered torture several times; all her bones were
dislocated, and the ground was covered with her

54 COREA.

blood. But her constancy remained unshaken.
When she was transferred to the Kientsd, the judge
used vain endeavours to persuade her by gentle
means. After the three interrogatories and the
usual tortures, he condemned her to death. Mary
underwent martyrdom at the age of twenty-one.

On the 3rd of September six martyrs were
beheaded.

JOHN PAK.

John had not nobility of birth, but he had some
thing better, for the blood of a martyr flowed in his
veins. His mother was a water-carrier by trade,
and he himself manufactured straw shoes. He was
at the head of his trade, and was celebrated for the
strength of his work. This simple and devout man
was arrested together with his wife. The judge
said to him, " What is your name ?" " My name
is Pak-Mieng-Kouang-i." " What is your profes
sion ?" " I am a Christian, and my trade is that
of a shoemaker." " Are your parents still alive ?"
" My mother died a few years ago, and my father
had his head cut off in 1801, for the same cause for
which I am now brought before you. I have no
other relations." " The king does not allow this
religion, you are infringing his orders." " God is
my Creator: He commands me to love Him, and I
owe obedience to Him rather than to the king."
" Denounce those companions of your disobedience
with whom you are acquainted." " I am not per-

COREA. 55

mitted to injure my neighbour." " Renounce your
religion if you desire to live." " My religion is
dearer to me than life, I had rather die than aban
don it." He received forty blows of the " board ;"
his flesh fell off in pieces, and his blood flowed upon
the ground. The wood beating upon his bones
emitted a horrible sound, but the confessor remained
unshaken : his legs were then bent. He was sent
to the second tribunal, where his torments were
renewed. Sentence was pronounced upon him, and
carried out five months afterwards. John was forty
years of age.

The other five martyrs were : —

Mary, wife of Damian Nam.

Barbara, wife of Augustine Y.

Barbara, sister of Magdalen Y.

Mary Pak, who showed herself as firm in suffer
ing as her sister Lucy, who was maid of honour to
the queen. She was fifty-four years of age.

Agnes Kim, whose history will be given with
that of her sister Columba.

On the 22nd of September the two following were
beheaded.

PAUL TING.

The family of Ting belonged to the highest class
of nobility in the kingdom. The high dignities of
the state had been handed down in this family from
generation to generation, until the time of Augus
tine, who was the first to embrace Christianity. In

56 CORE A.

1801 the first persecution broke out. He was
arrested with Cecilia his wife, and his children,
Charles, Paul, and Elizabeth. Augustine was mar
tyred with Charles his eldest son ; his wife and his
other children were set at liberty. Their crown was
reserved until later. As they had no resources,
they sought hospitality at the hands of their
numerous relations in the capital. The latter were
pagans, and refused them permission to enter their
houses. For this reason they were compelled to
take refuge in the country. Paul, who was then at
the age of seven, lived under the eyes of his mother
in the practice of virtue. When he grew up he
lamented with tears the state to which the church
of his country was reduced, without a shepherd,
without sacraments, and he prayed incessantly to
God to send it evangelical labourers. For the love
of Jesus Christ, and in the service of his brethren,
he did not disdain the occupation of a slave. He
put himself at the service of the government inter
preter, and was thus able to travel to China eight
or nine times.

He earnestly entreated the Bishop of Pekin, who
then governed the Church of Corea, to send some
priests there. Circumstances did not permit of this
step for some time, and the prelate was unable to
do more than compassionate their lot. At a later
period he was able to dispose of a Chinese priest,
and sent him to Corea provided with faculties, but
this priest died before arriving at the frontier. In
spite of this misfortune, Paul did not lose heart,

COREA. 57

but made application anew, and, in union with
several other catechists, wrote even to the supreme
Pontiff to obtain a pastor. Some years later they
had among them a bishop and two priests. The
bishop, perceiving in Paul talent, zeal, and virtue,
caused him to study Latin, and then theology, and
was about to ordain him when the persecution broke
out. Paul expected to be captured, as he was too
well known to remain concealed. He composed an
apology for the faith with the intention of present
ing it to the judge when he should be brought into
court. A traitor had denounced him : the officers
entered his house and bound him together with
Cecilia his mother, and Elizabeth his sister. The
judge said to him : " You transgress the laws of
the kingdom by practising a foreign religion and
teaching it to others." " God is the creator of all
men, He is my Lord, He commands me to worship
Him, and I must obey Him. All nations proceed
from one principle, which is God, and from but one
family, of which He is the Father. His religion,
which is composed of the duties which they owe
to Him, is no more foreign in Corea, than it is
anywhere else." " It follows from your answer
that the king and the mandarins are mistaken in
forbidding it. What do you say to this ?" « If
you press me in that manner, I have only one reply
to make, namely, that I am a Christian, and will die
a Christian."*

* I asked the person who was interpreting these

58 COREA.

Paul handed his apology to the judge, who, after
reading it attentively, said to him : " You are right
in what you have written ; but the king forbids
this religion, it is your duty to renounce it." " I
have told you that I am a Christian, and will be
one until my death." The executioners bound his
hands behind his back, and joined his arms tightly
together ; then passing two sticks between the arms,
they separated them with violence. The bones of
the sufferer were thus dislocated, and he was led
back to prison. At the second interrogatory, his
legs were twisted. At the third, he was brought
into the same court as the bishop : he underwent
the torture of the " long-rods," bending of the legs,
the torture of the triangular rod, and the " sawing-
ing rope." Wonderful to relate ! amidst these
frightful punishments, his countenance remained
tranquil. The judge was desirous of learning from
him the place of retirement of the two missionaries,
but could not extract a single word from his lips:

words to me, Avhy Paul did n.ot answer the question
directly, and what harm there was in saying that
the king and mandarins were wrong when the thing
was as clear as day. " To say that the king and
mandarins are mistaken," he answered with an air
of surprise, " is a crime of high treason. He who had
committed it, were he guilty of no other crime, be
sides the ordinary tortures, would have his arms,
legs, and head, cut off. His father and mother would
be put to death, and all his other relations sent
into exile."— "You live," replied I, "under a wonderful
system !"

COREA. 59

he left him in the power of the officers, who
employed every refinement of cruelty with no better
success. When the two Missionaries came to the
prison, Paul was transferred with them to the
Kempou, where, after suffering fresh torments, he
was condemned to death. When he was bound to
the cross upon the cart, he went quite cheerfully to
the place of execution, for his sufferings were almost
at an end, and he was about to enter upon the
happiness which will endure for ever. He was
forty-five years of age.

AUGUSTINE LIOU.

Augustine was born in the capital, of a family
distinguished for the number of offices which were
filled by its members. From his childhood up
wards, he had a decided inclination to study.
Before he reached the age of twenty, he had
acquired as much knowledge as is acquired by most
men in the whole course of their lives. His family
was favoured by fortune, and many of his relations
were in positions of dignity.*

Little moved by prospects of honour, he preferred

* His condemnation was accompanied by the de
gradation of twenty-six mandarins, who were relations
of his, and the banishment of his elder brother.
They were all pagans. By the barbarous laws of the
kingdom, when a crime is committed by one mem
ber of a family, all the others are put to death, or
sent into exile, or deprived of their dignities, accord
ing to the heinousness of the crime.

60 COREA.

to follow the pursuit of science. This world was
to him an enigma, of which he desired to find the
key. He sought it in the religion of Taosse, and
in that of Fo, thoroughly studying their books day
and night for the space of twelve years, but did
not find it there. There remained a void in his
heart which disturbed him. He interrogated other
learned men, but they were unable to solve his
doubts. Then, remembering that in his childhood,
he had seen some Christians led forth to die for
their teaching, he was inflamed with a desire of
knowing it and of discoursing with them ; and he
endeavoured to meet with some, but without suc
cess.*

One day, in his room, casually casting his eyes
upon a piece of furniture which was covered with
paper glued together, he perceived the top of a sheet
which had detached itself ; he took hold of it and
read these words : " Of the truth of the Lord of
Heaven."f

" Here is what I want," said he, " this is what
I am in search of." He detached all the other
sheets and pieced them together. These disjoined
sheets never gave him the complete sense of a

* In Corea, and especially in the capital, the Chris
tians conceal their faith with the utmost care, be
cause if they were known as such, they would
immediately be arrested.

f This is the title of a work composed'' by F.
Matthew Ricci, the first controversial book which
lias been written in the Chinese language.

CORE A.. 61

passage ; he read enough, however, to redouble his
desire of finding Christians. He continued his
search with increased activity, and at length met
•with one who gave him some books. He had no
difficulty in recognising the truth, and became a
Christian. At a later period, he was raised to the
dignity of government interpreter.*

He went to Pekin frequently, conferred with the
bishop, and received baptism. As he was devout,
zealous, and well-instructed, he sustained the faith
ful by his example and good advice. He was one
of those who managed the religious affairs of the mis
sion. This man, thus chosen by God, had to endure
terrible assaults from his relations, especially from
his daughters and his wife, who still remained in
paganism. One of his sons, however, imitated him
in his faith and in his virtues. This boy, at the
age of thirteen, conceived so ardent a desire of
shedding his blood for Jesus Christ, that he sur
rendered himself of his own accord. We shall see
later how he bore up against the tortures with a
courage which was the admiration of his judges.
Augustine was seized in the month of July, and
went cheerfully to prison, whither his son had
preceded him by one day. As soon as his brother
and his other relations knew that he was in the
hands of the police, they came in crowds to entreat
him to have pity on his family, to save his own
life, and to spare themselves the loss of their digni-

* In Corea this is an important office.

62 COREA.

ties : " I am deeply grieved," he answered them,
" that you are going to suffer on my account ; I
compassionate your lot, but after having once known
God, I cannot deny Him. The salvation of my
soul must take precedence of every consideration of
flesh and blood ; imitate my example, become Chris
tians, then you will despise what you now so greatly
fear to lose." A few days after, he appeared in
court. The judge made him go up to the raised
place where he was seated himself, and conversed
with him familiarly. He exhorted him with energy
to abandon his faith ; and pointed out to him the
precipice lying beneath the feet of his family. His
words were like the waves of the sea which fruit
lessly advance against a rock, and break upon
it without moving it. The judge ordered him to
descend into the court again: he was unable to
comprehend the motive which actuated the Euro
peans in leaving their country, relations, and
friends ; he said that they had come to Corea in
search of honour, riches, and pleasure. Augustine
replied to the judge in the following terms : " The
Western doctors have come amongst us to spread
the glory of the Lord of Heaven, to make Him
known to men, and to teach them to keep His laws.
Our God desires to be served by contempt of riches,
and honours, and by mortification of the passions.
At the end of time, He will raise all men from the
dead, bring them together before His tribunal, judge
them, and render to each one according to his works.
Heaven, and its ineffable joys will be the reward

COREA. 63

of His servants : hell and its infinite pains will be
the inheritance of those who have neglected
Him. This is what our masters have taught us.
While they are imparting these precepts to others,
can they themselves transgress them, and act in
opposition to what they say ? What weight would
their words then have ? Can they make others
good, if they themselves are evil ? Certainly not.
Thus, from their childhood, they exercise themselves
in virtue, that they may be more free and unen
cumbered by any impediment. They abstain even
from lawful pleasures, and make a TOW of not
marrying. After a sufficient period of trial in
knowledge and goodness of life, they are invested
with a high dignity, and sent to preach the faith
in foreign countries. If the love of pleasure, riches,
or honour, were any inducement to them, would
they have left their own country where such tilings
abound ? They have crossed a sea of nine thousand
leagues amidst innumerable dangers and toils ; on
their arrival here they meet with every kind of pri
vation : they are pursued as noxious beings, and are
exposed daily to death and to horrible tortures.
Before their departure, they were not ignorant of
what awaited them in these distant countries."
"Who introduced them into the kingdom?" "I
did." "Where are the other two Europeans?
How many persons have you imbued with your
teaching? Denounce them." Augustine made no
answer, and was tortured. He was then conveyed
to the prison, in which Mgr. Imbert was. He was

64 CORE A.

tortured twice, and endured all, preserving his
constancy to the last. He was forty-nine years of
age when his head fell under the sword. His
property was confiscated : his wife and daughters,
his younger son, nine years old, and his brothers
were sent into exile.

On the 26th September, the following nine
martyrs were beheaded outside the western gate :

CHAKLES TCHAO.

Charles was born at Koi-iang, in the province
of Kang-ouen. His parents were pagans, and left
him an orphan at the age of five. The little
property which belonged to his family was soon
spent. To support himself, he cut off his hair and
became a bonze,* but he soon grew tired of such a
life, returned to the world, and entered the service
of Augustine Liou, interpreter to the government,
•whom he accompanied every year to Pekin. Au
gustine perceived in Tchao more uprightness than
ordinary in a pagan, and ventured to speak to him
of the faith. At first, he met with some resistance,

* In Corea, as in China, the bonzes follow the
doctrine of Fo, and believe in the transmigration of
souls. Very few of them are in good faith. Despised
by the people, human respect and other passions re
tain them in the degrading state which they have em
braced : about fifty of them have become Christians.

COREA. 65

but he persuaded him fully, and made him a
fervent neophyte. Tchao received baptism at
Pekin: on his return, he laboured for the con
version of his family, and had the good fortune
to bring the whole of it to Jesus Christ. His zeal
for the propagation of the faith extended still further,
and about fifteen pagans owed their conversion to
him. Charles was one of the persons who intro
duced the missionaries into the kingdom. At the
beginning of 1839, when he was returning from
Pekin, he had a dream, in which it seemed to him
that he saw Jesus Christ with SS. Peter and Paul
standing by Him, and heard the following words
from His lips : " In the course of this year, I will
give thee the grace of shedding thy blood for the
glory of my name." Charles thanked Him, making
a profound inclination before Him. When he
awoke, he was much astonished at what he had
heard. At his departure for China, the persecution
had not commenced: and he was ignorant at the
time of the feeling which existed against the Chris
tians. He attributed this dream to a groundless
imagination; but, when it was repeated a second
time with the same circumstances, he no longer
doubted of its reality, especially when he learnt the
state of affairs on his return to Corea.

He redoubled his fervour, and prepared for mar
tyrdom ; however, to avoid being arrested, he con
cealed himself, left his house, and went to lodge
elsewhere. One day, as he was returning home,
he saw a crowd assembled at the door. The officers

5

66 COREA.

were within, employed in putting the members of
his family in fetters. Charles let them alone,
and vhen they went out, he mixed in the crowd and
followed them to the prison, and into the court:
many other persons also entered. The officers
ordered them to retire, but Charles remained in his
place. One of them took him by the shoulders
and pushed him roughly : he offered some resistance.
They asked his name : "I am the head," he replied,
"of that family which you see there;" and they
seized him immediately. As Charles brought with
him every year what was necessary for the mission,
he had many religious objects in his house at the
time when it was pillaged. The judge said to him:
" To whom do these objects belong ? — who charged
you to introduce them into the kingdom ?" " I
make the journey to Pekin every year, and I bought
them in China." " They are not yours, they belong
to some one else ; tell me their proprietor and the
persons of your sect." " God in His command
ments forbids us to do injury to our neighbour; I
cannot betray my co-religionists to you." " What ?
to observe the commandments of your God do you
rebel against the will of the king and the mandarins?"
"God is higher than the king and the mandarins.
His will must take precedence of theirs." His legs
were bent, and his arms dislocated, without one
word being extracted from him. The sufferer was
then suspended in the air by his arms, and beaten
on all parts of his body. He received thirty-five
blows of the board, and was carried back to prison

COREA. 67

upon two sticks. These tortures were repeated four
times, until the whole of his body was one wound ;
but, far from overcoming him, they served to increase
his fervour. He was confronted with the bishop
after the capture of the latter. He was subjected to
fresh tortures that the secret of the place of conceal
ment of the two missionaries might be wrested from
him ; his arms and legs were twisted, his flesh was
sawn through with a rope, and his bones rubbed
with the triangular stick; all this took place four
times during the same interrogatory. He was taken
before the royal tribunal with the Europeans, and
suffered three times the punishment of the ruler,
after which his sentence was pronounced. He un
derwent altogether eleven interrogatories ; during
his tortures he exhibited such firmness, (without a
sigh or a word of complaint,) and so surprising an
insensibility, that the judges and officers said:
" This man's body is not of flesh, but of wood
and stone." As he was on the point of being bound
to the cart, he said to the jailer : " My friend, I am
on my way to heaven; tell my family that I go
before them, and may they have the courage to
follow me." The jailer executed his commission
•with tears in his eyes. Charles, in his turn, started
for the place of execution; a heavenly joy over
spread his countenance. When he was unbound
from the cross, he perceived in the crowd some of
his relations, who were pagans, buried in deep grief;
and he gave them a last salute with a pleasing smile.
He then lowered his head, which fell beneath the

68 COREA.

sword, and his soul took 'flight to its eternal home.
Charles was forty-five years of age.*

SEBASTIAN NAM.

Nam belonged to a family of distinguished no
bility. In the persecution of 1801 his father was
captured and sent into exile, where he died almost
immediately. Sebastian was arrested at the same
time, and condemned to the same punishment as his
father. He was not baptized, and all that he knew
of the faith was the Lord's Prayer and the angelic
salutation, which he recited daily. His conduct in all
other respects was that of a heathen. A severe
illness by which he was attacked caused him to awake
to better sentiments ; he asked for a Christian, had
himself instructed, and received baptism. He
regained his health, and from that period led an
exemplary life ; he was recalled from exile, and was
one of those who went to the frontier to introduce
the missionaries, whom he entertained in his house.
During the persecution a Christian betrayed him;
and he was arrested with his wife and thrown into
prison. The judge commanded him to denounce the
other Christians, to give up his religious books, and
to deny his God. Notwithstanding his advanced
age, Sebastian showed himself firm under suffering ;
he wras remanded to the Kientso, and from thence
to the Kempou; having to undergo torture before

* Are not such men martyrs of whom Rome and
Lyons would be proud?

CORE A. 69

each of these tribunals. He was then condemned
to death. Before mounting the fatal car, which
to the martyrs is a car of triumph, he said to
the keeper of the prison in which the women were
confined : " I had ardently desired to die on the
same day as my wife, but our God disposes other
wise ; tell her that I await her in the abode of bliss."
He went forth to die with remarkable cheerfulness.
He was sixty years old.

Magdalen, mother of Magdalen Y. Her history
has already been related.

IGNATIUS KIM.

The family of Ignatius is celebrated in the church
of Corea for the number of martyrs which it has
furnished ; its dwelling was situated in the country.
In the first persecution, Ignatius' father left his
home to take refuge in the mountains, and brought
up his son in virtuous habits from his earliest years.
Ignatius was remarkable for strength of body : he
possessed the strength of five or six ordinary men.
His son-in-law betrayed him, and he was arrested and
led to prison. Besides the crime of religion, he was
guilty of another in the eyes of the law, namely, that
of having sent his son to Macao to study European
languages,* and he was therefore tormented more

* The Corean government has such a ridiculous
horror of foreigners, that it condemns to death all who
have communication with them.

70 COREA.

cruelly than the rest. During the tortures his
courage failed him, and he apostatised ; he was not,
however released on that account. When he was
transferred to the second court, the confessors said
to him : " Do not hope to be set free — certain con
demnation awaits you ; return to yourself, acknow
ledge your weakness before the judge, and die a
martyr." Ignatius returned to himself, lamented his
fault, made a retractation before the judge, under
went with constancy his three interrogatories, and
regained the palm which he had let fall from his
hands. He was forty-four years old. His son
Andrew is now a priest, and in prison for the faith ;
he will probably have the glory of following his
ancestors to the place of triumph. (Andrew Kim
was beheaded on the 16th September, 1846.)

JULITTA KIM.

Julitta was born in the country ; her parents were
Christians, but inattentive to their duties. Before
the persecution of 1801 they came to establish them
selves in the capital; when Julitta had arrived at
the necessary age, they were anxious to marry her,
but she made the resolution to preserve her virginity;
as she was persecuted daily and on the point of
being compelled to yield, she tore out her own hair,
and made her head as smooth as her hand. " That
will do for the present," her parents saipl, "your
hair will grow, and then we shall see." In the
mean time arose the persecution of 1801, and they

CORE A. 71

returned to their native place, but Julitta fled
secretly and asked to be received into one of the
royal palaces.*

As she soon saw the difficulty of practising her
religion in this place of disorder, she left if and
received hospitality of a Christian. By working
with assiduity she earned a little property, and
bought a house, where she lived all alone with the
fervour of a religious. As she was of a firm cha
racter, and an inflexible will, she had an open
manner of speaking, which made her feared by her
neighbours. Thus they were careful of their words,
when they came into her presence. She let nothing
bad escape from them. They would say of her :
(< Julitta had rather be killed than let one wrong
word pass." She was betrayed and led to prison.
The judge said to her : " Deny your God, denounce
the Christians, inform me of the places where your

* These royal palaces are miserable houses which
the smallest townsman in Europe would not conde
scend to inhabit. Besides those in which the king
lives, there are others set apart for the tombs of his
ancestors. As the superstition exists in Corea of
treating the dead as if they were alive, saluting them,
offering them food, &c.; in those palaces eunuchs and
maidens are collected by order of the king for the
service of his ancestors. These young women cannot
marry, and must live in continence ; if they fail in
this, they are punished with death and exile. When
once they have entered these sanctuaries, they cannot
leave them except for severe illness. We refrain from
relating here the crimes which are committed in these
places where the devil reigns as lord.

72 COREA.

religious books are concealed." She replied: "I
love my God, and I cannot deny Him ; if I betray
the Christians to you, you will inflict death upon
them ; you will burn the books of our religion if I
tell you of the places where they are. I would rather
die than commit such crimes." Before both tribu
nals all the tortures were exhausted, all means of
persuasion were employed, but she remained un
shaken, and her sentence was pronounced. Julitta
was fifty-six years of age.

AGATHA TSEN.

Agatha was gifted by nature with both bodily and
mental advantages ; while yet young, she was pre
sented at court. She heard the faith spoken of, and
embraced it. From that moment she sought to
abandon a place where she could not be a Christian.
She took off her fine clothes and left the palace.
Her family was pagan; she could not therefore
return home without exposing her faith to a multi
tude of dangers. She became poor with Jesus
Christ, Whom she had learnt to know, and sought
hospitality of some Christians. She applied herself
to the practice of virtue with greater fervour, and
her example was proposed to the rest as a model.
God tried her by various sicknesses, which she bore
with patience. Devout and zealous, she devoted
herself successfully to the conversion o£ pagans.
Agatha was with Lucy Pak, her companion, when
the officers unexpectedly entered the house. With-.

COREA. 73

out being disturbed she received them with courtesy,
ordered food to be prepared for them, made up a
bundle of the most necessary linen, and followed
them to prison. When she came before the court,
the judge said to her, " How is it that a person of
your rank can have embraced a wicked religion ?"
" God is the Creator of the universe," said she ;
"He gives to men their being and their life, and pre
serves it to them. He rewards virtue, and punishes
vice ; to render Him homage is not a crime worthy
of punishment."

The judge endeavoured several times to make her
apostatise ; as he was unable to succeed, he sent her
before the second tribunal. The mandarins said to
her : " You have been educated and brought up in
the king's palace, and will you transgress his orders?
Renounce your religion and return home." " I had
rather die a thousand times than do what you tell
me." Five times she underwent the torture of the
legs, in which her bones were fractured. During her
sufferings she preserved a calmness, which excited
admiration among those around her. Her brother
was a pagan, and held an honourable position in the
world ; if his sister was condemned to capital punish
ment, his honour and reputation were lost. He
therefore used every endeavour to make her aposta
tise ; but, as he could not succeed, he thought that if
she died in prison her death would not make so much
noise, and he might preserve his honour and the place
he had in the government. He conceived the horrible
project of poisoning her, and sent her a dish pre-

74 COREA.

pared with poison ; but Agatha threw it up imme
diately after having taken it. This unnatural brother,
seeing the failure of his plan, went to the chief of
the police, and entreated him to have her beaten
till she expired. Agatha had to endure horrible
torments, but she did not die under them. She
knew that was the design of her brother, and feared
lest he should procure that she should be left in
prison to die a natural death. In fact, this had
already been hinted at to her. Her companion
Lucy was in possession of the palm of martyrdom ;
she saw before herself a future, the length of which
made her tremble. She prayed to God with tears
not to deprive her of her crown, and her prayers
were heard. After six months of captivity she was
beheaded at the age of fifty.

MAGDALEN PAK.

Magdalen was the child of pagan parents. After
the death of her husband, she again became a mem
ber of their household, and lived like a fervent
Christian with her father's wife. From her, this
person learned the faith and embraced it. She
acquitted herself of her obligations with exemplary
exactness; she even undertook those domestic de
tails which were the hardest to perform, and left
to others the more agreeable occupations, conduct
which gained her the good will of all. . Three
or four Christian families occupied the house where
she dwelt, which gave occasion to much confusion

COREA. 75

and to a concourse of people, but this never disquiet
ed her; .she had only one fear, which was lest she
should fail in some duty. When the persecution
began, all fled, she alone remaining in charge of the
house. Some time after, the brother of her mother-
in-law returned, and, at a moment when they least
expected it, the soldiers entered, secured them both,
and conducted them to prison. When placed before
the judgment seat, she was addressed by the judge in
the following words : " Deny thy God, say where
the people of thy house have gone, denounce the
Christians, or thou shalt be beaten all to pieces."
" I cannot deny my God, the people of the house
have fled, I know not whither ; as to the Christians,
I do not know any." " Let her legs be twisted, —
at thy house a crowd of people used to be coming
and going, and thou dost not know them !" " It
did not concern me who came and went, — I do not
know them." She suffered the torture more than
once, and displayed great firmness in her tor
ments. She was transferred to the Kientso, and
the judge said ; " there is still time, renounce thy
religion and thou shalt be restored to liberty."
"Were it lawful for me to renounce my religion,
I should not have come here, I should have aposta
tised at the first tribunal. Importune me no more,
it is useless, I am here to shed my blood for my
God; execute the laws of the state." After the
punishment of the ruler three times renewed, she
was condemned to death. The sentence was carried
out seven months later. She was aged 44 years.

76 COREA.

PEEPETUA HONG, WIDOW.

Perpetua Hong was born in the suburbs of the
capital. Her parents left her an orphan at a
tender age. Her grandmother took charge of
her and brought her up. She was married to a
pagan, but after the death of her husband, she heard
of the faith and embraced it. She quitted her
family, in which her faith was imperilled, and asked
hospitality of certain Christians. With them she
lived in the practice of piety. During the persecu
tions, she was caught and cast into prison. The
judge plied her with promises, threats, and tortures ;
all was in vain ; he therefore abandoned her to the
mercy of the executioners, who suspended her and
beat her to death. Besides her tortures, she had
to undergo the miseries of the prison for six months.
She was 36 years of age.

COLUMBA KIM AND HER, SISTER AGNES.

Columba was born in a village at no great dis
tance from the capital. Her family was pagan and
possessed wealth. Her father, having had a differ
ence with a neighbour, committed suicide.* Her
mother embraced the faith with her six children,

* The Coreans hang themselves and drown them-
selves with strange indifference; a slight offence,
a contemptuous word, a mere nothing will drive them
to this mad crime.

CORE A. 77

and some years after died the death of the just.
Columba and her sister Agnes vowed their virginity
to God, and dwelt with their brother's family.
Columba was naturally of a timid disposition, even
more so than those of her sex ordinarily are.
Every time that she heard that a Christian had
been apprehended, she grew pale, and fell into a sort
of swoon. Nevertheless, before the tribunal she
displayed a courage which made an impression on
the judges. In the month of May, the soldiers
suddenly entered the house and bound her with her
sister Agnes in chains. The judge said to Columba,
" Believest thou that the religion of the Lord of
heaven is true ?" " I believe it is true, and there
fore practise it." "Why dost thou not marry?"
" Our God loves purity of body and spirit, I honour
Him by consecrating to Him both." " Thou failest
in thy duties to society, and breakest the orders of
the king. Renounce thy religion, denounce the
Christians, tell where the books of thy sects are
concealed, and where thy brother has gone." " I
will never abandon my God ; I know not where my
brother is hid — you put Christians to death, burn
their books, — to give them up to you is a crime !"
Her limbs were dislocated, and she was beaten with
the long rod. "Thou wilt not obey, I will have
thee beaten till thou dost expire." " As you please,
I will do none of the things you order me." She
was taken back to prison. Some time afterwards,
the soldiers, without any orders from the judge,
burst into the prison, stripped off her garments,

78 COREA.

and, with her sister Agnes, hung her np, jeering
them ; and procuring rods, they covered them with
wounds; then heating a fire-iron, they thrust it
in twelve places into the body of Columba. During
the torture, she preserved a tranquil countenance,
and her constancy wearied out her tormentors. The
judge ordered her to be stripped a second time, and
cast without covering, into a dungeon of thieves.
There were sixteen in number, who rushed upon
her to assault her ; but the God of martyrs gave
her in that moment so supernatural a strength that
she beat the brutal ruffians away. Five days after
her torments, Columba found herself as robust as
ever, and not a trace of her wounds was visible.
The judge attributed this marvel to the agency of
the devil, by whom he thought her to be possessed ;
and he caused her to be exorcised by a magician, who
took a large needle and pricked her with it in many
places to make a passage for the devil. "What
have we done," said Columba, "what is there so
bad in our religion that you should torture us so
cruelly ?" " You do not honour your ancestors,"
answered the judge, "you do not offer them the
food prescribed by the rites."* "Your rites are

* Almost all the religious practices of the Coreans
may be reduced to offering food before the sepul
chral slab of their ancestors' tombs, and saluting
them by bowing the forehead to the ground ;
they believe them to have souls, and that there is
in heaven a divine power, or rather that heaven
itself is a divinity; but what is this divinity?

COREA. 79

vain observances, the soul separated from the body
needs no food." She was sent with Agnes to the
second tribunal. The judge said to her, "Except
in your religion can no one be holy ?" " No,"
answered Columba, " there are no means." " Then
Confucius and Montze are not holy ?" " If Con
fucius and Montze have known God, and adored
Him, they are holy. If they have not done this,
they are reprobate." The judge asked many other
questions which have escaped us. At the end,
Columba said : " The mandarins are the fathers of
the people, they listen favourably to the prayers
made to them, may I ask my judge one question ?"
" Speak." " If the laws condemn Christians to
death, I am ready to die ; but whence comes it that
pains are inflicted on me which are not appointed
by the laws? At the other tribunal I was des
poiled of my garments, I was suspended amidst
indecent scoffs, my body was pierced with a red hot
iron. Does the law permit modesty to be thus
outraged ?" " This damsel is a pearl," exclaimed
the angry judge, "who has attempted to dim its
lustre ?" At once he issued an order to cane the
culprits, and two of the ringleaders were banished.
After this the women were spared these disgusting

They have no idea, and do 'not trouble themselves
to form one. If spoken to of their last end, they
answer like a certain class of Europeans, "what
happens at death ? No one knows, and no one has
come back to tell us. Let us eat and drink, to
morrow we shall die."

80 COREA.

punishments. Agnes was beheaded on the 3rd of
September, after four months of great suffering.
She was twenty-five years old. The pains of sick
ness were added to the other sufferings of Columba.
After an imprisonment of five months, she also was
beheaded at the age of twenty-six.

On the 29th December the seven following martyrs
were beheaded.

PETER TSHOI.

Peter belonged to an honourable family of Seoul,
and his ancestors had held offices under the govern
ment. In the persecution of 1801, he lost his eldest
brother, who was martyred for the faith. Being
then only thirteen years of age, and having no pro
tector, he was greatly neglected, and his religious
education uncared for; thus his conduct did not
differ from that of the pagans. In 1820, a scourge
as terrible as it was extraordinary* devastated
Corea, and every day struck down a multitude of
victims. Peter entered into himself, procured in
struction, and received baptism. Henceforth his
conduct was irreproachable ; his sweet and peaceful
disposition made him pleasing to every one. Full

* From the description given me, this wa.s without
doubt the cholera. It passed from Japan through
Corea into China. Twelve years afterwards, it was
at the gates of Paris.

COREA. 81

of grief and contrition for his past life, he often said
with groans : " Alas ! only martyrdom can expiate
my many transgressions : my God, do not deprive
me of this grace." As soon as he saw the perse
cution declare itself, his desire for martyrdom
became more lively, and he prepared himself with
intense fervour. About the end of June, the officers
visited his house, put the family in chains, and con
ducted them to prison. The mandarin ordered
Peter to be brought before him and said : " Dost
thou follow the wicked doctrine of the Christians ?"
" In the doctrine of the Christians there is nothing
wicked; I adore God and serve Him." " Re
nounce this God and thou shalt live." " I cannot
deny my Creator." " How long hast thou known
Him ?" " My parents were Christians, they spoke
of Him to me from my childhood." " See what a
wise doctor we have here," said the mocking offi
cials. Seven times he was made to undergo the
torture ; seven times his legs were bent ; seven times
four executioners together beat him with the end of
the long rod ; and he received in all, one hundred
and fifty blows of the board. His constancy was
invincible ; when transferred to the Kientso, he there
underwent the three ordinary interrogatories and
the tortures by which they are accompanied. His
sentence was pronounced, and six months after he
underwent it. Just as they were about to set out
for the place of punishment, he said to the jailer,
" I go to die, tell my wife and daughter not to
mourn for me, but rather to praise and thank the

6

82 COREA.

Lord ; I hope that in a few days they will follow
me to the place of triumph." Peter gained the
crown of martyrdom at the age of fifty- three.

BARBAKA TSO,

WIFE OF SEBASTIAN NAM.

The family of Barbara was distinguished for its
nobility and piety. At the age of sixteen she was
espoused to Sebastian Nam, whose martyrdom has
been recorded above. Their son, the only fruit of
their union, died some months after his birth. In
1801 her father was martyred, and her father-in-law
and husband were banished. Barbara having now
only a younger brother left out of all her family to
protect her, went to reside with him. After a
few years had passed her husband was recalled from
exile, and they both went to live in the capital.
Barbara was one of those who most contributed
their efforts to introduce the ministers of the Gos
pel into Corea. Th'ey were received into her
house, and served by her as messengers of heaven.
Animated with a great desire to shed her blood
for Jesus Christ, she prepared for martyrdom by
the most fervent practices of piety. She was
arrested in June, and taken before the tribunal.
The judge said to her : " You have the choice of
only two things, either to die, or to renounce your
religion and denounce the Christians ; think well
before you answer." " My choice is made,"

COREA. 83

she replied, "rather a thousand deaths than com
mit a crime which my conscience abhors." She
endured the torture before the tribunal five times ;
ten times the executioners inflicted their torments ;
in all she received 180 blows of " the rod." Her
body was cut to shreds, and there was not a single
spot without a wound. At last the judge grew
tired of tormenting her, and gave sentence. During
the six months which she spent in prison, Barbara
conciliated in an extraordinary degree the affections
of her fellow captives. "When her turn arrived,
they speedily brought her the news in the morning,
and surrounded her weeping. She consoled them,
and as the execution was delayed, begged them to
withdraw; and laying herself down on her mat,
slept tranquilly until the moment when she had to
ascend the car. She went joyfully to death, being
fifty- eight years of age.

MAGDALEN HAN, WIDOW,

HER DAUGHTER AGATHA, AND AGATHA Y.

Magdalen was born in the country, of noble
parents, who were not very rich. Her family was
pagan, but she was converted to Christianity a few
years after the first persecution. Her daughter
Agatha received from nature gifts of which she
made an unhappy use. She was a scandal to reli
gion, but she made reparation by repentance.
Agatha Y was also born in the country, of Chris-

84 COREA.

tian parents. These three women dwelt in the
capital when they were arrested. The two Aga-
thas, with the connivance of some soldiers, escaped
from prison, and their flight occasioned the judge to
lose his office, besides the death of a jailer, the
banishment of two more, and the seizure of several
Christians. They were retaken, and suffered their
torments courageously, with Magdalen. She was
beheaded at the age of fifty-six, on the 29th of
December, 1839; Agatha, her daughter, at the
age of 21, and Agatha Y at the age of 27,
January 31st, 1840.

BENEDICTA HIEN, WIDOW.

The family of Hien held one of the first ranks in
the middle class, and the secondary dignities of the
state were transmitted in it from father to son.
The father of Benedicta was martyred in 1801,
and her mother, a pious Christian, brought her up
with great care. The child knew how to profit by her
mother's lessons, and made great advances in the
practice of virtue ; she was one of those whom
people looked upon as -an example. After three
years of married life she lost her husband.* As
persecution had many times despoiled her family of
its wealth, she was reduced to indigence, and was

* In Corea, amongst the better sorts of inhabi
tants, to marry again is infamy to the widow, how
ever young,— an absurd custom, which gives rise
to a thousand disorders.

COREA. 85

forced to gain a livelihood by manual labour. She
became a sempstress, and when the missionaries
arrived she made clothes for them. The informer
denounced her as one who had frequent intercourse
with Europeans, and sister to Charles, the catechist
to one of them. She was taken, and had to suffer
horrible torments. Eleven times had she to endure
the torture before the tribunal, and besides the bend
ing of her legs, she received more than 300 blows of
the "rod." The judge, unable to subdue her, con
demned her to death. Benedicta awaited tranquilly
for seven months, in prison, amidst privations of
every kind, and the sufferings of sickness, the mo
ment when the headsman's axe should sever her
head from her body, and put her in possession of
the crown of martyrs. She was aged forty-six years.

ELIZABETH, SISTEft OF PAUL TING.

We have seen that Elizabeth was imprisoned
for the faith, with all her family, in 1801. She was
then four years of age. Brought up with care,
she showed herself to be the worthy imitator of
her parent's piety. From her tenderest years she
vowed her virginity to Jesus Christ. She was
seized with her mother and brother. The judge,
knowing her state, said to her: "Why have you
not taken a husband?" "As my family has been
degraded,* and has forfeited its rank, no one has

* When the head of a family has been punished
with capital punishment, the other members are

86 COREA.

thought of me." " Do you practise the religion
of the Lord of heaven?" " Yes, I practise it."
" Who has imbued you with the teachings of this
sect ?" " From my infancy my mother has taught
me, and told me of the punishments in store for
those who do not know Him." "Renounce your
religion, and you shall live." To renounce my
Creator is a crime ; I cannot commit it." " Your
brother has been fool enough to choose to die ; be
you more wise, only say the word, and you go
free, taking your mother with you." "If I can
not live without denying my God, I prefer death.'*
The judge tried promises, and then threats, but all
his efforts were unavailing against the constancy
of Elizabeth. She endured the torture seven times,
and received 350 blows of the "rod." Amidst her
torments she preserved a tranquil countenance. She
said afterwards : " By a special grace I did not ex
pire beneath the blows, and I now understand a little
what immense agony my Saviour must have suf
fered." When transferred to the second tribunal she
went through the three interrogatories with like
firmness. Her sentence was pronounced. During
the six months that she waited in prison, prayer,
meditation, consoling the afflicted, and exhorting the
weak to endure their sufferings patiently, were her
daily works. She joyfully mounted the car which

degraded for ever. Elizabeth's father was martyred
in 1801.

COREA. 87

bore her to the place of execution. She was aged
forty-three years.

Her mother Cecilia generously confessed Jesus
Christ before the judge, and under her torture
showed a courage disproportioned to her great age.
She received 230 blows of the "rod," and died in
prison, November 23rd, aged seventy-nine.

BAKBAKA KO.

Barbara was born in the capital, of respectable
parents. Her father was martyred in 1801 ; and
her mother reared her in the fear of God, and in
the practice of Christian works. She was married
to Augustine Pak, whose martyrdom will be related
below. Before entering the lists she greatly feared
the tortures, but when once on the field of battle she
kept up bravely the fight for the Lord. Seized with
gratitude and admiration for this grace which God
had given her, she exclaimed, " Truly I did not
know it would be so sweet to suffer for Jesus
Christ." Besides the torturing of her legs and
arms, which were dislocated, her body was torn to
pieces by scourges. Her flesh fell off in shreds,
and her bones were laid bare. After three months
of prison and suffering, she was beheaded in her
forty-first year.

88 COREA.

MAGDALEN Y AND HER SISTER MAKY.

These two maidens were born in the capital, of
pagan parents, who were very poor. Their mater
nal grandmother, who was a Christian, finding her-
S3lf without support, took refuge in their family.
They listened to her conversation about religion, and
embraced it, together with their mother Barbara. It
is impossible to relate how much they had to
suffer, especially vexations and injuries from their
father, a violent obstinate man, and steadfast in his
superstitions; but they succeeded in getting out of
the house secretly and receiving baptism. Magdalen
had determined to remain always a virgin, but when
she was nineteen her father wished to give her in
marriage to a pagan. She excused herself, professing
the pretext of sickness. Her father not believing
her, Magdalen, with blood drawn from her finger,*
wrote on a paper her resolution never to marry,
and showed it to him, asking him to press her no
more. Her father tore the paper, and told her in a
voice of anger that there was nothing left for her
but to obey him. Magdalen, seeing herself on the
point of being forced, formed a project of flight,
in concert with her mother and sisters. They
accomplished it, and came to tell the Bishop. The
Bishop ordered them to return to their family and
to be faithful to their religion. " My husband,"

* The usual way with the Coreans to express their
will energetically.

COREA. 89

said Barbara, "is of so violent a disposition that
our return home will be our death." "In that
case," said the Bishop, " do as you think best ;"
and he promised them some assistance. They hired
a house, and henceforth were able to give full
scope to their zeal and devotion. Meanwhile the
pagan, finding that they did not return, imagined
that in despair they had thrown themselves into the
river. He called boatmen and made them examine
the water; their nets brought up the bodies of
three women; he took them for his wife and two
daughters and buried them. He is still ignorant
of their history, and believes to this day that they
drowned themselves. They dwelt with two other
Christians, Magdalen Tso and her daughter of the
same name, when the soldiers suddenly entered their
house, enchained them, and threw them all five into
prison. They bore the tortures bravely. Barbara,
Magdalen Tso, and her daughter, after some months
of suffering, died in prison of a pestilential fever.
Magdalen Y and her sister were decapitated, the
former on December 29, aged 28, the latter on
January 31, 1840, aged 27.

After the execution of the martyrs guards kept
watch for three days over their bodies. After
this some mendicants made themselves masters
of the corpses, and tied a rope under the arms
to drag them before the houses, the startled inhabi
tants of which gave them money to take away
the odious spectacle. At a later period they beg
ged the mandarin to be pleased to order that the

90 COREA.

place of punishing the Christians should be further
off.

The 31st January, 1840, outside the ramparts of
the city, in a place called Tan-Ko-Kai, six martyrs
were beheaded.

AUGUSTINE PAK, CATECHIST.

Augustine was an inhabitant of the capital. His
virtue and talent obtained for him the rank of
catechist. He was taken the day before his wife,
Barbara Ko ; and went through the same inter
rogatories and torments, showing the same firm
ness ; he was aged 48.

PETER HONO AND PAUL HIS BROTHER.

These two brothers were distinguished amongst
the Christians for their nobility and piety. Their
grandfather, who was the first of his family to em
brace the faith, was martyred in 1801. They were
arrested, and the chief judge being their kinsman
would not try their cause, but handed them over to
the two inferior judges, enjoining them to make them
apostatise and send them home. These as well as
the executioners thought to gain credit with the chief
judge by preserving the life of his two t relatives.
For this reason they refined their cruel barbarities,
but all their devices only served to make their mar
tyrdom more glorious. They were beheaded, Peter

COREA. 91

on the 31st January, aged 42, and Paul the next
day, aged 39. Some months after, their father's
brother, with his sons, was martyred in the province
of Tsella, after twenty years' imprisonment. In
them their family became extinct on earth, to be
more splendid in the abode of glory.

MAGDALEN SON, WIFE OF PETEE TSHOI.

Magdalen was born in Seoul of an honourable
family. In 1801 her father was exiled for the faith,
her mother soon died, and her education was very
much neglected. In 1820, at the time of the
cholera, she was converted with her husband, re
ceived baptism, and gave herself up to the practice
of Christian duties. She was seized in June,
and taken to prison with her daughter, a child of
two years old. When brought to the tribunal the
judge said to her : " Who has instructed thee in the
Christian religion ? How long hast thou practised
it ?" " From infancy my grandmother spoke to me
of God, of the reward He destines for virtuous men,
and the punishment He prepares for the impious."
"What people frequent this house?" "You will
put them to death, I cannot denounce them." " To
whom do those objects found with thee belong?"
" I do not busy myself with these matters ; I do not
know the owner." " Eenounce thy God." "Never;
God is my Creator, I honour Him." " Have pity on
thy daughter, spare thyself at least for her sake ; say
one word and thou shalt regain thy liberty. If thou

92 COREA.

dost persist in thy obstinacy thou slialfc not escape
the tortures and the final punishment." " God is
the judge of life and death ; my life belongs to
Him, I cannot preserve it at the expense of the
obedience which I owe to Him. When I shall be
no more He will take care of my little one." Four
times they violently bent her legs ; and she received
360 blows of the "rod." All her body was lacer
ated, the blood streaming from her veins. Fearing
lest her child might be an occasion of temptation
and fall, she entrusted it to a Christian. She
suffered besides this for eight months the privations
of imprisonment, after which she began her im
mortal life. She was aged 39 years.

The other persons who suffered martyrdom on the
same day are : —

Agatha Y and Agatha Kouen, who are spoken of
in the account of Magdalen Han.

Mary Y, who is spoken of with her sister
Magdalen.

The first of February, 1840, three martyrs were
beheaded ; first Paul Hong, whose history has been
related.

JOHN Y.

John was a descendant of a family of the provin
cial nobility. In his childhood he was left an
orphan and adopted by a Christian of the capital.

COREA. 93

When older he put himself at the service of the
Europeans, who entrusted him with the manage
ment of missionary affairs. He was arrested and
taken before the tribunal. The judge observed his
youth and distinguished appearance, and became
interested in him, speaking to him in an affec
tionate and benevolent way. " You are still young,
well educated, and can hope for preferment ; a fine
career is open to you ; how comes it that you have
embraced this sect and rebelled against the orders
of the king ? An ignominious death awaits you ;
renounce this religion which was unknown to our
fathers, say but one word and you shall be free."
John answered : " To cling to life and shrink from
death is, I well know, O mandarin, a sentiment
natural to man. I know, too, what advantages you
would procure for me, but these have small attrac
tions ; this life is short, and its honours are like a
passing shadow. The sensible man prefers immortal
glory and unending joy to the pleasure of a moment.
Through the tribulations of this world, and beyond
the tomb, my religion reveals an eternal happiness ;
for this I practise it. The king, it is true, prohibits
this religion ; but higher than the king is God, the
Creator and Father of all men, who orders me to
adore Him. Can I without crime refuse obedience ?
Judge of it yourself. If in this kingdom the king
commanded one thing and a mandarin the contrary,
whom ought we to obey ? Know that, in the hands
of God, kings are mandarins, of whom He makes
use to govern this earth."

94 COREA.

The judge, as a proof of his friendliness and to
win him, offered him a little wine to drink, but soon
finding his different means of seduction useless, he
proceeded to tortures. He commanded that he
should be stretched on the ground and receive
twenty blows of "the board." Blood gushed forth
violently, and John fainted. The judge seeing him
about to expire, and unfit to endure further tor
ments, had him conveyed back to prison. The
confessor was transferred afterwards to the second
tribunal, where he underwent the three questionings
with the same constancy. He was condemned to
death, and three months afterwards his sentence
was executed. He was thirty years of age.

BABBABA TSHOI.

Barbara was taken at the same time that her
father and mother Peter Tshoi and Magdalen Son
were arrested. When her parents spoke to her
of marriage she replied : " In selecting a husband
for me do not think of his age, or rank, or
riches ; let him only be a good Christian, that is all
I want to make him suit me/' Their choice fell
on Charles Tchao, whose age exceeded hers by
twenty-four years. When brought before the tribu
nal the judge said to her, " Renounce your religion,
denounce the Christians, and say who is the owner
of the objects found with your husband." " Though
I must die I never will renounce my God ; I am
acquainted with few Christians, and, besides, you

COREA. 95

will put them to death ; I cannot denounce them ;
I do not know who put the things in our house."
The judge ordered her legs to be bent. It happened
that, like her mother, Barbara was nursing a child.
Lest its presence might excite in her maternal heart
emotions which might prove fatal, she entrusted it
to a Christian, beseeching him to watch over it.
She seven times underwent the torture, and received
more than 300 blows with " the rod." For eight
months she endured the horrors of imprisonment.
Her father, mother, and husband had preceded her
to the abode of happiness ; and she sighed for the
moment when she would be again with them. She
was beheaded when she was twenty-one years of
age.

PAUL HE.

Paul was a soldier. During the first interroga
tories he stood firm, although he received seventy
blows of " the board." Afterwards the miseries of
the prison made him apostatise, but the very same
day he entered into himself and bitterly bewailed
his guilt. He went in search of the mandarin, and
accused himself of his weakness. " I have sinned, I
repent; my tongue has apostatised; my heart was
Christian ; it is still the same ; see, I am ready to
go through your torments again." " Very well,"
said the officers, " but we cannot tell if you are
speaking the truth ; you must prove by some sign
that you have changed." Close at hand stood a
large tub, into which the prison sewer emptied itself.

96 COREA.

" If you are really sorry, here is a cup, dip it into
that tub and drink." Paul, without hesitation, filled
it, and at one gulp swallowed the whole of the dis
gusting liquid. He wished to repeat it. " Enough,"
they cried, "enough of this. Here is a crucifix,
prostrate yourself before it." Paul prostrated him
self and respectfully kissed it. The judge, irritated
at his return, ordered them to beat him to death
with " the board." He was forty -eight years of
age.

PETER Y.

Peter was born intone of the provinces, of a noble
but impoverished family. On the death of his
father his mother went with her children to reside
in the capital. Peter led the life of a fervent Chris
tian, and was arrested with his sister in 1834. He
underwent most courageously, before the tribunal,
the wrenching of his arms and legs, and the torture
of " the board." The judge, unable to extort from
him a word of apostasy, wrote a large letter on a
slip of paper, and put it before him, saying, " It is
hard for you to pronounce your apostasy, spit at this
letter and it shall be a sign that you will be a
Christian no longer." "It is the same thing,"
replied Peter ; " I cannot do it." " I will have
you beaten, and if you utter a groan I shall under
stand that you abandon your religion." He caused
him to be cruelly beaten, and his arms and legs
were bent, but Peter remained mute and motionless.

COREA. 97

His sentence was pronounced. The wording of it
was, that he was condemned to death for following a
false doctrine. The judge showed it to him, order
ing him to subscribe it. " My religion is holy," he
replied, "the doctrine it teaches is true, I cannot
attest that it is false." The judge commanded an
assistant to take hold of his hand and compel him by
force to sign it. Peter was kept prisoner for four
years, during which he observed a rigorous fast,
Feeling his end approach, he said, "I ardently
longed that my head might fall beneath the sword,
but God disposes otherwise, may His holy will be
done." Having spoken these words he slept the
sleep of the just, in the month of June, 1838, aged
thirty-six. His sister was martyred the following
year.

JOSEPH TSABTG.

Joseph was what is commonly called a kind-
hearted sort of man. He was born at Seoul in the
lowest rank of life. As he was very poor, he used to
get a livelihood by selling small-wares, but he soon
abandoned this, because he found it an occasion of
daily falsehoods. His family said to him, "We now
have nothing, we are starving ; keep to your trade
which supported us." Joseph replied, " I was able
with my business to earn the clothes that cover us,
but to me it was an occasion of ruin. I would rather
lose my life than preserve it at the expense of my
conscience." During the persecution he was in
flamed with so violent a desire of shedding his blood

98 COREA.

for his God, that he was on the very point of giving
himself up voluntarily to the mandarin ; however,
he waited for the guards to come and seize him.
He fell sick : " Alas," said he, " I shall not be able
to be a martyr." But the soldiers made their ap
pearance, and he was overjoyed ; he was carried to
prison and thrown on one side. Several days passed,
and no one took any notice of him. " I am a Chris
tian," he complained ; " why am I passed over, why
am I not interrogated, why am I not beaten ?"
" He is delirious," said the officers. " I am not de
lirious, I am in my sound senses; I am a Christian,
I tell you, and I have come here to suffer and to die."
The judge accorded that for which he so passionately
longed ; he ordered them to inflict twenty- five blows
of the " board." Joseph expired almost instanta
neously, June 5th, 1839. He was aged fifty-four.

PKOTASIUS TSENG.

Protasius belonged to a mandarin family. He
embraced Christianity as an adult, and fulfilled his
duty with the greatest fervour. So humble was he
that, disregarding his own nobility, he prostrated him
self to all the nobles whom he met. When brought
before the first tribunal he endured the tortures with
the greatest firmness. At the second the judge
gained him by his kindness, persuaded him to apos
tatise, and sent him home. No sooner had Pro
tasius reached home than he conceived so lively a
sorrow for his sin, that for days he could not eat

COREA. 99

or drink. He went back to the Pretorium. " Ah,
here you are again," said the guards ; " and what
brings you here?" "I come to make reparation
for a crime I have committed ; I apostatised, but I
repent of it, and am come to tell the mandarin."
Saying these words he entered the hall. " Bah !"
said the guards, driving him out, " what you have
said is said, it is over now, go home." Protasius
returned to the attack the three following days, but
they constantly refused him entrance. He stationed
himself in the street, and watched for the departure
of the judge. Seeing him come out he prostrated
himself with tears, crying out, " I have sinned, my
mouth said what my heart denied; I repent, I
am a Christian, I want to be one." " I do not be
lieve you," answered the judge, moving on. Pro
tasius followed, calling out, " I am a Christian ; I
want to die a Christian." " What a set of people
they are," exclaimed the judge angrily; "it is im
possible to get rid of them." He commanded him
to be taken back to the first tribunal, and there Pro
tasius obtained the object of his desires ; for he
received twenty-five blows of the "board," and
expired the next night, aged forty-one.

PETEE LIOU.

Peter was the son of Augustine, the government
interpreter. He became the faithful imitator of his
father's virtues. It is incredible what he had to
endure from the ill-treatment of his mother and

100 COREA.

sisters, avowed enemies of the Christian name. This
little boy, persuaded that he could never elude the
search of the ministers of justice, went to the
tribunal to give himself up. He was tortured eight
times, and received more than six hundred blows of
the " rods.'' Fourteen times did the executioners set
upon him with menaces, and load him with injuries
and outrages. He received forty blows of the
" board." During his tortures he displayed so great
firmness and so tranquil an air, that the very
executioners stood in amazement. He took bits of
his flesh which were hanging to his body only by
shreds of his tender skin, and threw them down
before the judges with a smile. In prison he was
an apostle ; he encouraged the disheartened, and
exhorted apostates to repentance. " You are a cate-
chist and a grown man," said he to one of them ;
" I am only a boy ; it is you who ought to be
exhorting me to suffer courageously ; how comes it
that we have changed places ? Return to yourself,
and die for Jesus Christ."

Peter was strangled in prison, October 31st, at
the age of thirteen.

The following martyrs in their interrogatories
were asked the same questions and gavp the same
replies ; we are therefore compelled to curtail them,
in part, to avoid tedious repetitions.

COREA. 101

AGATHA TSONG.

Agatha was born on the banks of the river which
flows near the capital. She embraced Christianity
in middle age. After the death of her husband,
when there was no longer any one to maintain her,,
she begged her bread from door to door. In extreme
indigence, she was most faithful to her duties.
When she was brought before the tribunal, the judge,
in order to frighten her, displayed all the different
instruments of torture, and threatened that she should
be beaten to death unless she apostatised. " It were
unworthy of me, at my age," said she, " to abandon
my true religion ; I am on the point of appearing
before the Judge of the living and the dead ; there
is hardly a breath in my body now : make haste to
deprive me of it, before death prevents you." She
was carried to the prison of the Kientso, where she
expired of the pangs of hunger, pronouncing the
sweet names of Jesus and Mary. She was aged
seventy-nine.

BARBARA KIM.

Barbara was born in the country, of pagan parents.
"While still a girl, she entered the service of a Chris
tian family in the capital. She was firm under the
torture, and died of hunger and sickness in the month
of June, aged thirty-six.

102 COREA.

LUCY THE DWAKF.

The parents of Lucy were poor peasants. She
was born a humpback, and never had any other
name than Lucy the Dwarf. She preserved through
out her life the simplicity of a child. She was
servant in a family of the capital, and exact in the
performance of her duties. She confessed Jesus
Christ before the tribunal with great intrepidity.
" Press me no more," she said, " I am a Christian —
send me to death — I go readily." She died of
hunger in prison, aged seventy-one.

ANNA HAN,

AND HER SISTER-IN-LAW, BARBARA KIM, WIDOW.

These were two poor women, who confessed
Jesus Christ generously, and endured the torture
courageously. The first received three hundred and
ninety blows of " the rod," the second three hundred
and forty. They expired in prison in consequence
of their sufferings, Anna at the age of fifty-five, the
29th of August, Barbara at the age of forty-nine, the
23rd of August, 1839.

CATHEEINE Y, WIDOW,

AND HER DAUGHTER MAGDALEN TSO.

After a generous profession of faith, they died in
prison in consequence of their torments ; Catherine,

COREA. 103

aged fifty-seven, Magdalen, aged thirty-three. Out
of love for her virginity, Magdalen, in spite of her
mother's entreaties, would never marry.

FEANCIS TSHOI.

Francis was born near the capital. He was one
of the most fervent Christians, and suffered with
great courage horrible torments, and the torturing of
his arms and legs ; at two interrogatories he re
ceived one hundred and ten blows of the " board ;"
and expired on the spot, August 25th, 1839, aged
thirty-five. His son Thomas was sent to Macao to
study Latin, and is now a deacon.

ANDREW TSENG.

He was a rich Christian of the provinces. He
had received as it were the simplicity of the dove,
but he had not the wisdom of the serpent. The
traitor went out to him to discover where the bishop
lay hid. Andrew himself was taken afterwards ; he
underwent courageously the torturing of his limbs,
scourgings, and one hundred blows of the " board."
He was strangled in prison, January 24th, 1840,
aged thirty-three.

TEEESA KIM.

Teresa was a pious woman of the province. She
was in the house of Paul Ting, where she was a

104 COREA.

servant, when she was apprehended. She received
the torture six times, and two hundred and eighty
blows of the " rod." After seven months' imprison
ment she was strangled, on the 10th of December,
1839, aged forty-four.

STEPHEN MIN.

Stephen was converted some years before the
persecution. He was of noble origin, and his educa
tion, talent, and piety won for him the distinction of
catechist. Before the tribunal, his replies to the
judge were bold and intrepid. " Not only will I not
abandon my religion," said he, " but if you let me
go, I will preach it to the Gentiles." The enraged
judge commanded him to be beaten with the utmost
cruelty. " He is worthy of death, let him die
beneath the blows." Stephen received these, and
then forty blows of the " board." He was cast into
prison, where he exhorted the apostates and moved
them to repentance. He was there strangled,
December 31st, 1839, aged fifty-three.

ANTONY KIM.

Antony was a farmer. He embraced the faith in
his manhood, and by his zeal and fervour con
verted the greater part of the villagers. He went to
live in the capital, and made his house a place of
reunion for the faithful. When arrested he bore the
torments with courage. He said to the judge, " I

COREA. 105

have but one word to say to all jour questions and
exhortations, — I am a Christian, and I want to die
one." He received ninety blows of the " board,"
and was strangled in prison, in March 1841. He
was aged forty-seven.

Fiant novissima mea Jiorum similia. May my
last end be like these.

EEKKEOL,

BISHOP OF BELLINA.

September 22nd, 1846.

106

COREA.

ARTICLE II.

Letter of Mgr. Ferreol, Vicar Apostolic of Corea,
to Signor Barran, Superior of the Foreign
Missions at Paris, relative to the new Corean
Martyrs.

Sir and dear Confrere,

I have to speak to you of the triumphs of
Christianity in the Corea, of martyrs again this
year, and illustrious martyrs. From her founda
tion the Church of Jesus Christ has not ceased
to offer at all times to her Divine Spouse generous
children, who have washed their stoles in the Blood
of the Lamb ; this is one of the glorious privileges
which distinguish her from the sects which are
separated from her. We were ministering to the
Christians in peace, when the enemy made a decla
ration of war. In the combat many have been
vanquished and many victors ; at the head of these
last we find M. Andrew Kim, a native priest,
the only man [of any capacity whom I had at my
disposal. I had sent him to the borders of the
province of Hoang-hai, where Chinese boats come
in great numbers every spring for the fishing. He
was to visit these places, and ascertain if there were

CORE A. 107

any means of establishing with the Chinese a chain
of communication for the transmission of letters, and
the introduction of missioners. His mission was
safely accomplished, when an unforeseen accident
caused him to be seized. This is his own account
of his capture, and of part of the torments he had to
suffer before receiving the final stroke of the sword.
The original of his letter was in Latin.

Valley of Souritsicol, in the province ]
of TsJiongtseny,

November 3rd, 1846.

My Lord,

Your Excellency will have already heard what
has happened in the capital since we parted. We
set sail as soon as we had completed our prepara
tions, and a favourable wind brought us in safety
to the sea of Yen-pieng, which was covered at that
time by a quantity of fishing boats. My people
bought some fish, and went to the harbour of the
island of Suney to sell it again, but not finding
purchasers, they sent a sailor ashore to salt it. In
the course of our voyage we passed by Pokang,
and the islands of Maihap Thetsinmok and Sotseng
Taitseng, and at last cast anchor near Pelintao. I
saw there about a hundred fishing junks from Can
ton; they kept very near to the shore, but the
crew were prevented from landing by sentinels,

108 CORE A.

who were posted on the elevations of the coast,
and the tops of the hills. Curiosity drew a crowd
of Coreans from the neighbouring islands round the
Chinese. I myself went near them at night, and
was able to speak to the master of a boat. I en
trusted him with the letters of your Excellency, and
wrote some to MM. Beneux, Libois, and Martre,
as well as to two Chinese Christians. I added to
these two maps of Corea, with a description of the
islands, rocks, and other remarkable features of
the coast of Hoang-hai. This place appears very
favourable for the introduction of missionaries, and
for the transmission of letters, provided sufficient
precautions are taken in making use of the Chinese.
They make an appointment here for the fishing
every year, about the beginning of the third month,
and remain there till about the end of the fifth.
After having executed your Lordship's orders, we
set out again, and returned to the harbour of
Suney. Up to this time my voyage had been
very prosperous, and I hoped for an equally fortu
nate termination of it. The fish which we had left
was not yet dried, which obliged us to stay longer
in port. My servant Veran asked leave to go
on shore to reclaim some money which he had
left in charge of a family, with whom he had been
concealed for seven years for fear of persecution.

After he had gone the mandarin came to our
boat, with some of his people, and asked to be
allowed to use it to drive away the Chinese junks.
Corean law does not allow the boats of the nobles

COREA. 109

to be taken for the public service, and as I had been

made, I do not know how, to pass with the people

for a ianjpan of high rank, as the nobles are called,

I should have fallen in their estimation, and so done

an injury to our future expeditions, if I had given

up my boat to the mandarin. Besides, Veran had

prescribed for me a line of conduct which I was to

pursue in similar circumstances. I therefore replied

to the mandarin, that my boat was for my own

use, and that I could not give it up to him. His

officers abused me violently, and took my pilot away

with them. They came back in the evening, and

taking away another sailor, brought him into the

court, where the answers which both of them made

when questioned, threw grave suspicions upon me.

The mandarin was aware that the grandmother of

one of them was a Christian. The officers then

consulted together, and said: "We are thirty; if

this person is really noble, perhaps one or two of

us may be put to death, but not all; let us go

and seize him." They accordingly came at night,

accompanied by several women of bad character,

and throwing themselves upon us like madmen,

they dragged me by the hair, some of which was

pulled out, and tying me with a cord, they showered

kicks and blows with their hands and with sticks

upon me. In the mean time the remaining sailors

under cover of the darkness of the night crept

quietly down into the boat, and rowed away as

fast as they could. When we reached the shore,

the officers stripped me of my clothes, bound and

110 COREA.

beat me again with every sort of insult and sarcasm,
and brought me to the court, where a great many
persons were assembled. The mandarin said to me :
"Are you a Christian?" — "Yes, I am," I answered.
"Why do you practise this religion contrary to
the king's orders? Give it up." "I practice my
religion because it is true; it teaches me to know
God, and brings me to eternal happiness : I know
of no such thing as apostasy." The torture was
then applied to me, and the judge said, " If you
do not apostatise you shall die under the blows." —
"As you please, but I will never abandon my God.
Do you wish to hear the truth of my religion?
Listen. The God whom I worship is the Creator
of heaven and earth, of men and of everything that
is: He punishes sin and rewards virtue, &c.
Whence it follows that all men are bound to do
homage to Him. For my part, I thank thee, O
mandarin, for making me suffer these tortures for
His love. May my God reward you for this benefit,
and raise you to a higher rank." At these words
the mandarin and the whole assembly began to
laugh. They next brought me a cangue about
eight feet long, which I immediately took up, and
put on my neck, at which bursts of laughter broke
from all parts of the audience. I was thrown into
prison with the two sailors, who had already apos
tatised. My hands and feet, my neck /and my
loins were tightly bound, so that I could neither
walk, nor sit, nor lie down. A crowd of people
pressed round me out of curiosity, and I spent part

COREA. Ill

of the night in preaching the faith to them, and
they declared that they would embrace it if it were
not forbidden by the king. The officers finding
some Chinese articles *in my bag believed that I
was of that country, and the next day the mandarin
sent for me and asked if I was a Chinese. " No,''
I answered, " I am a Corean." Not believing what
I said he asked, " In what province of China were
you born?" — "I was brought up in Macao in the
province of Koang-tong; I am a Christian, and
curiosity and the desire of propagating my
religion brought me to this country." He then
sent me back to prison, from whence, five days
later, I was taken by a subaltern and several men
to Kaiton, the capital of the province. The governor
asked me if I was a Chinese, and I answered as
I had done to the mandarin of the island. He put
a great many questions to me about my religion,
and I gladly took the opportunity of speaking to
him of the immortality of the soul, hell, paradise,
the existence of God, and the necessity of worship
ping Him in order to be happy after death. He
and his people answered, " What you say is good
and reasonable: but the king does not allow us
to be Christians." They afterwards asked me many
things which would have compromised the Chris
tians and the mission, and I was very careful not
to reply to them. "If you do not tell us the
truth," they said angrily, "we will torment you
in various ways.'' " Do what you please," I
answered; and running to the instruments of tor-

112 COREA.

ture I took them up and threw them at the governor's
feet, saying, " See, I am ready, strike me. I do
not fear your tortures." The officers removed them
immediately, and the servants of the mandarin came
up to me and said : " It is the custom, for every body
who speaks to the governor to call himself So-in"
(which means fool.) "What are you saying?"
I answered, "I am a great nobleman, and know
nothing of such an expression."

Some days afterwards the governor sent for me
again, and overwhelmed me with questions about
China, sometimes speaking by an interpreter to find
out if I was really a Chinese, and ending by order
ing me to apostatise. I shrugged my shoulders and
smiled to express my pity for him. The two Chris
tians who were arrested with me were overcome by
the severity of the torture, and pointed out the
house where I had lived in the capital, besides
betraying your excellency's servant, Thomas Ly, his
brother Matthew, and several others : they con
fessed that I had communicated with the Chinese
junks, and given some letters to one of them. A
detachment of soldiers was immediately sent off to
the junks, which brought back the letters to the
governor. We were very strictly guarded in separ
ate cells, with four soldiers watching us night and
day, and a long cord tied to our loins. The soldiers
seeing seven scars which had been left on my breast
by tire ten leeches which I had put on when I was ill
at Macao, declared that I was the Great Bear, and
amused themselves by many jokes about it.

CORE A.

As soon as the king heard of our arrest he sent
some officers to bring us to the capital : he had been
told that I was a Chinese.

During the journey we were not bound as we
were in prison, but our arms were tied with a red
cord, as is done with robbers and great criminals,
and our heads were covered with bags of black
cloth. We suffered greatly on the way from the
crowds, who thought I was a foreigner, and pressed
to see me, some even climbing up trees and getting
on the roofs of houses as I passed. When we
reached Seoul we were thrown into the prison of
thieves. The people of the court, hearing me speak,
said I was a Corean. The following day I appeared
before the judges, who asked me what I was. " I
am a Corean," I answered, " and I was educated in
China." Interpreters of Chinese were then called
that I might speak with them.

In the persecution of 1839 the person who be
trayed us declared that three young Coreans had
been sent to Macao to study the language of the
Europeans, so that it was impossible that I should
not be recognized: besides, one of the Christians
who was arrested with me had told them that I
was their countryman. I confessed to the judges
that I was Andrew Kim, one of the three Coreans
mentioned, and I related to them all that I had
gone through in order to return to my country.
When I had told my story every one exclaimed,
" Poor young man ! From his infancy upwards he
has been in trouble." The judges ordered me to

114 COREA.

conform to the king's orders and to apostatise, but I
answered, " The God who orders me to worship Him
is above the king, and to deny Him is a sin which the
king's order cannot justify." When it was sug
gested to me to denounce the Christians I objected
to them the duties of charity and the commandment
of God to love our neighbour. Being asked about
religion I spoke to them at length of the existence
and unity of God, of the creation and immortality
of the soul, of hell, of the necessity of worshipping
our Creator, and of the falsehood of the religions of
the heathen. When I had finished speaking the
judges answered: " Your religion is good, but ours
is so also, and therefore we practise it." " If such
is your opinion," I replied, " you ought to leave us
alone and live at peace with us. But instead of
that you persecute us, and treat us worse than the
greatest criminals: you confess that our religion is
good, and you attack us as if its teaching was
abominable. '? They laughed loudly at my reply,
and handed to me the letters and papers they had
taken. The judges read the two that were written
in Chinese; they only contained salutations to
friends. They then told me to translate the Euro
pean letters, but I only explained to them what was
of no consequence to the Mission. They asked me
about MM. Berneux, Maistre, and Libois, and I
answered " esse philosophantes in Sinis,'? that they
were studying philosophy in China. Finding a differ
ence between my letters and those of your Excellency
they asked me who had written the latter. I said

COREA. 115

in general that they were my letters. They showed
me those of your Excellency, and desired me to
write like them, intending to entrap me, but I was
too cunning for them. " These characters," I said,
"were written with a metallic pen; if you will
bring one I will do as you wish." " We have no
pens of metal." " Unless I have one I cannot form
characters like these." A quill was then brought,
and the judge gave it to me saying, " Cannot you
write with this instrument ?" " It is not the same
thing, but it will serve to show how a person who
uses the European characters can write different
hands." Then making a very fine pen I wrote
several lines in a small hand, and afterwards I cut
off the point and wrote much larger. "You see,''
I said to them, "these characters are not the same.'*
This satisfied them, and they did not press me
further, but your Lordship will see from this how
far our learned men in Corea are behind those of
Europe.

The Christians who were taken with me have not
yet been put to any torture in the capital. Charles
and his companions are in another prison, where we
cannot communicate with them. Of the ten who
are here four have apostatised, but three of them
repent of their weakness. Matthias Ly, who played
so vile a part in 1839, appears full of courage and
desirous of martyrdom, His example is followed by
the father of the convert Sensiri, by my pilot, and
by Peter Nam, who formerly gave such scandal to
the faithful. We do not know when we shall be led

116 COREA.

out to death, but we are full of confidence in the
mercy of the Lord, and trust that He will give us
strength to confess His holy Name up to our last
moment. The government has decided upon seizing
your Excellency's servant Thomas, and several other
important persons. The police seem rather tired,
and not caring to look for Christians any more, have
said that they have all gone away to Itsen lantsi
Ogni, and into the provinces of Tshong-tsheng and
Tsella. I entreat your Excellency and M. Daveluy
to remained concealed until after my death. The
judge tells me that three vessels, believed to be
French, have anchored near the island Oiento. He
says they have come by order of the Emperor of
France, (a convenient expression in these countries,)
and that they threaten to do much harm to Corea ;
that two of them have gone away with the intention
of returning next year, and that the third still re
mains in Corean waters. The government seems
frightened, remembering the death of the three
Frenchmen who were martyred in 1839. I was
asked if I knew the reason of their coming, and I
replied that I knew nothing about it, but that they
need not be afraid, for that the French never did
harm to any one without good reason. I have spoken
to them of the power of France, aud of the liberality
of her government. I think they believe me, but
they object to me that they have killed three
Frenchmen without coming to any harm. If French
ships have really come to Corea, your Excellency
will doubtless be aware of it.

COREA. 117

I have had to translate an English map of the
world, and have made two copies of it in colours,
which have pleased them much ; one is intended for
the king. Just now I am engaged, by order of the
ministers, in making a small compendium of geogra
phy. They take me for a very learned man. Poor
people !

I recommend Ursula, my mother, to your Excel
lency. She was allowed to see her son for a day or
two after an absence of ten years, and then he was
taken from her again. Have pity upon her, I beseech
you, and console her in her sorrow.

Prostrating myself in spirit at your Excellency's
feet, I salute for the last time my beloved father and
revered bishop. I likewise salute Mgr. De Besi,
and send my respectful compliments to M. Daveluy.
May we meet in heaven. From prison, 26th August,
1846.

ANDREW KIM, Priest,

Prisoner of Jesus Christ.

M. Kim was treated as an enemy of the state,
and executed in the same way as Mgr. Imbert, and
MM. Chastan and Maubant. On the 16th of Sep
tember, a company of soldiers with shouldered
muskets, marched to the place of execution on the
banks of the river, at the distance of about a league-
from the capital. A little later, a volley of musketry
and the sound of trumpets announced the arrival of

118 COREA.

a military mandarin of high rank. In the mean
time the prisoner was brought out of his dungeon,
and was made to sit with his hands tied behind his
back, on a chair which had been roughly prepared,
and consisted only of two long sticks with a seat
woven between them of straw. He was thus con
ducted in the midst of a crowd of people to the
scene of his triumph. The soldiers had erected on
it a pike, from which a standard floated, and stood
round it in a ring, which they opened to admit the
prisoner. The mandarin read the sentence, which
condemned him to death for having held communi
cation with foreigners. M. Kim cried out with a
loud voice : " this is my last hour of life, listen to
me attentively : if I have held communication with
foreigners, it has been for my religion and for my
God. It is for Him that I die. My immortal life is on
the point of beginning. Become Christians if you
wish to be happy after death, because God has
eternal chastisements in store for those who have
refused to know Him."

"When he had finished speaking, his robe was
taken off him, and each of his ears was pierced
with an arrow, which was left hanging in it. Some
water and a handful of lime was then thrown in
his face, and two men passing a stick under his
arms, took him on their shoulders, and carried him
three times rapidly round the ring ; after which they
made him kneel down, and, fastening a cord to his
hair, passed it through a hole in the pike, pulled it
by the other end to hold his head up. During these

COREA. 119

preparations, the martyr lost none of his composure.
" Now," he said to his executioners, " am I placed
rightly ? can you strike me conveniently ?" " No,
turn this way, that is right." " Strike, I am
ready." A dozen soldiers, armed with scimitars,
then began a sham fight, and wheeling round, struck
the neck of the martyr as they passed. His head
did not fall until the eighth blow. A soldier imme
diately put it on a small dish, and presented it to
the mandarin, who returned to give an account of
the execution to the court. By the laws of the
kingdom, the bodies of criminals remain on the
place of execution for the space of three days, after
which their relations are at liberty to remove them.
The remains of M. Kim were buried in the place
where he was killed, and the officers kept guard
over it, so that as yet it has not been possible to
transfer them to a more becoming place.

You will easily understand, my dear confrere,
what a cruel thing the loss of this young native
priest has been to me. I loved him as a father
loves his child, and nothing but his happiness con
soles me for his absence. He is the first, and up
to this time the only one of his nation who has
been raised to the priesthood. In the course of his
clerical education, he imbibed ideas which made
him very much the superior of the people
here. His lively faith, sincere piety, and attrac
tive manner, at once obtained for him the re
spect and love of the Christians. In his ministry
he surpassed our hopes, and a few years practice

120 COREA.

would have made him a most able and valuable
priest. It was not easy to detect his Corean origin ;
we were able to entrust all sorts of affairs to him, and
his character, manners, and knowledge, were a
guarantee of their success. In the present state of
the mission, his loss is an irreparable one. It will
not be out of place to give you here a short account
of his life.

Andrew Kim was born in the province of Tshong-
tsheng in August 1821. If the traditions of the
family are to be trusted, it traces its descent from a
a king who ruled over the South of Corea in ancient
times, when it was divided into small states ; but in
spite of this illustrious pedigree, it does not rank
high in the kingdom. The reigning dynasty has not
yet completed its fourth century, and some of its
members have sunk to the lowest class, namely, that
of slaves; they however are not now considered as
belonging to it. The Kim family will have a dif
ferent reputation with posterity, for having given
several martyrs to the Church.

Andrew was brought up in piety from his infancy.
When M. Maubant arrived in Corea, he found him
so intelligent that he took him as his attendant, and
in 1836, sent him to Macao with two other young
men to study Latin. He was there instructed by
excellent masters, and made great progress in learn
ing and virtue. In the year 1842, at the end of the
Anglo-Chinese war, when M. Cecile, commander of
the frigate " Erigone," expressed his intention of
visiting the Corean court, M. Libois sent Andrew

COREA. 121

with him to serve as interpreter in his intercourse
with China. At Ting-hai and Shanghae, and in
other places, he gave the Chinese a high idea of the
generosity of the French, and conciliated the esteem
of that people towards them.

In this position he acquired that boldness, which
was developed in him by degrees, until he was pre
pared for the accomplishment of the designs which
Providence intended him to carry out. From that
time his mind was gradually enlarged, and the
hazard of any enterprise rather excited him to its
achievement than deterred him from it. As the
French ship could not reach Corea that year, he
left it, and embarked with two missionaries on a
junk, which was setting sail for Leaotong. Towards
the time when the Corean embassy went to Pekin,
he was sent to Pien-men to see if it afforded
any means of re-establishing the communication
which had been broken off for three years, but he
arrived too late, as it had already entered China.

Meeting it on its way, he examined it closely to
see whether it contained any Christians. Seeing a
young man alone, a little apart from the rest, he
ventured to ask if he was a Christian. The sign
had not deceived him ; and he persuaded the young
man, who was a courier with intelligence, to turn
back and introduce him. It was represented to him
that it would be impossible for him to escape
recognition if he travelled alone, and without a pro
per dress; but he rejected the courier's advice, and
courageously set out by himself. While in the desert,

122 COREA.

between China and Corea, he altered his clothes to
the Corean fashion, and went on in the disguise of a
beggar. When he reached the frontier, he followed
a knot of about fifteen persons, and most providen
tially was not asked for his passport at the custom
house. He proceeded a day's journey into the
country, but at the first stopping-place his language,
manners, and head-dress, betrayed him, and he was
obliged to turn back. During the day he concealed
himself among the mountains, which were covered
with snow, and travelled only at night. He thus
repassed the custom-house, and regained the
desert. After remaining for three days without
food, he was overpowered by weariness and sleep,
and lay down upon the snow to rest, although the
cold was terrible, and the night dark. He had
hardly fallen asleep when he was awakened by a
voice which said to him, " Arise, and walk," and at
the same time he imagined he saw something
shadowy pointing out a way through the darkness.
When relating the story to me afterwards, he said :
" I believed that voice and apparition to be merely
produced by my imagination, worked upon by my
three days' fast, and the horrors of my solitary
position ; but still they were most useful, for I
should most likely have been frozen to death, and
awakened only in the next world." A fresh danger
awaited him on his return to Pien-men. -'.He then
looked neither like a Corean nor a Chinese: his
feet were so much frost-bitten that they could
hardly support him, and his lips were so swollen

CORE A. 123

with the cold that he could not speak articulately.
It was proposed to arrest him, and take him before
the mandarin, but his presence of mind saved him
from that danger.

In the beginning of 1844 I sent him to the north
frontier of Corea, to try to obtain an entrance for
missionaries in that direction. He travelled for two
months across the vast forests of Mantchouri, in the
midst of ice and snow. He met some Christians,
and arranged that they should come to Pien-men
at the end of the year, to try to introduce the Vicar
Apostolic into the country. At the appointed time
I took him with me, in the hope that we might both
succeed in reaching the mission. Out of the seven
messengers who came to the frontier, only three
were able to cross it, and they considered that the
risk was too great to make it possible to introduce
a European. I compelled them to take with them
Andrew, who was then a deacon, directing him to
prepare a boat and go to Shanghae. Under cover
of night he passed between two mountain frontier
stations, and waited for the messengers until the
appointed day. His great faith and his firm trust
in Mary enabled him to bear with great patience all
the difficulties of his journey. "When he reached
Seoul, the capital of Corea, he immediately got a
boat ready, and collected some Corean peasants
whom he made his sailors. Without communicating

D

his intention to his crew, he boldly set out in his
little boat to cross a sea of which ho knew nothing.
God had still further trials for him ; bad weather

124 COREA.

obliged him to return to port, and he encountered a
violent storm while still at sea : his masts were cut
feway, his rudder broken, and part of his property
and provision thrown into the sea. That Providence,
to which alone he looked for safety, threw in his
way a Chinese junk, which agreed to tow his boat
to Shanghae, where he was ordained priest. Two
months afterwards he landed two European mission
aries on the shores of Corea, and thus happily
accomplished the mission he had received from on
high, before it pleased God to take him to Himself
by the glorious death of martyrdom.

After the execution of M. Kim, there still remained
in prison eight noble confessors, who refused to pur
chase their liberty by apostasy. On the last day of
the seventh month of the Corean year, (September
19), the king ordered that they should be put to
death. Charles Kien, the chief of them, was be
headed in the same way as M. Kim, and received
ten blows from the scimitars of the soldiers. The
other seven were strangled in prison, after having
been almost killed by the blows of the " board." In
the acts of the martyrs of 1839 you will find a
description of this terrible punishment. In this case,
the martyrs were already at their last gasp when
they were strangled. I will now proceed to give a
short account of them.

Charles Kien belonged to a distinguished -'family in
the capital. Ilis father was martyred in 1801, and
in the persecution of 1839 his wife and his son died
in prison, while his sister, Benedetta, fell beneath the

COREA. 125

axe of the executioner. Charles was the chief manager
of the affairs of the mission for many years. He
went to the frontier of China to join Mgr. Imbert,
and was the constant companion of M. Chastan in
his ministrations to the Christians. His age and
virtue made him beloved and respected by all the
faithful. Before the martyrdom of the bishop, he
desired Charles to compile the acts of all those who
shed their blood for Jesus Christ, and to take charge
of the mission during its widowhood. He was pur
sued by the police for three years, and was obliged
to disguise himself and to seek refuge in the poorest
cottages and in the caves of the mountains. When
there were no priests he encouraged the Christians
and preserved them in their faith ; he often sent
messengers to reopen communication with China,
and he formed part of the Shanghae expedition.
On his return to Corea he was entirely devoted to
the service of religion, and as he was alone in the
capital when the persecution broke out, the direction
of everything fell upon him. He had just moved
from one house to another, taking with him part of
the money and property of the mission, when the
police came upon him suddenly, and carried him off
to prison with four other persons. He was not put
to the torture, but was well treated until he was
declared a traitor to the state, and the second chief
of the Christians. His laborious career was thus
crowned with the glory of martyrdom. His death
has made a great impression on the faithful, who
lament him very much ; many of them owed their

126 COREA.

conversion to him. He is a great loss at a time
like this, when we have so few men capable of
serving the mission with fidelity and zeal. lie was
the last of his family, and died at the age of forty-
nine.

Peter Nam was born of poor parents in the capital.
He was a soldier in the service of a chief mandarin,
and was arrested in the persecution of 1839, but
liberated without apostatising, by the exertion of his
brothers, who were heathens. Afterwards he gave
much scandal to the faithful, but he repented of it
and repaired it. Before being strangled he received
fifty blows with the "board." He died at the age of
fifty-three.

Lawrence Han was the catechist of a village called
Ogni, about fifteen leagues from the capital ; it has
now been entirely destroyed. He was a well in
structed and fervent Christian, and very desirous of
martyrdom. When the police attacked the village,
they seized him as the chief Christian, beat him
severely, and took him to the prison of Seoul, where
he died, aged forty, having received seventy blows
with the "board."

Joseph Im was born in a village, on the banks of
the river which passes near the capital. He was a
pagan, but his wife and children were Christians,
and in 1839 he became a police officer to protect
them. He was arrested because his son was the
pilot of Andrew Kim's boat. When the son apos
tatised and refused the grace of martyrdom, God
seems to have transferred it to the father. From

COREA. 127

the time he entered the prison he had a great desire
to die for Jesus Christ, although he knew hardly
anything of the faith. "When he appeared in court,
the judge, who knew him to be a pagan, said to
him : " Do you know the commandments of God ?"
" No, I do not." " If you do not know them, you
are not a Christian." " In the same family," he re
plied, " there are children of different ages ; some of
them have attained the use of reason, while others are
not yet weaned; the elder ones know their father better
than the younger, but all love him ; I am like a child
in the faith, I can hardly walk in it ; but although I
know so little of God, I know that He is my Father,
and I desire to die for Him. Matthias here, who
is intelligent and well instructed, knows God better
than I do, and is like a grown up son in our Christian
family." (Matthias is the son of I/y, the mandarin who
introduced the faith into the country. He is one of
the most distinguished literati of the country. In 1839
he was so weak as to apostatise, but this year he has
shown the most gratifying signs of repentance and
firmness; he confessed Jesus Christ with great
courage, and looked forward to his martyrdom with
much eagerness; but this favour has been denied
him, for the judge considered him useful to the king
dom, and has privately given him over to his family.)
When Joseph Im heard the prisoners cursing their
religion, he said to them with great indignation, " I
cannot answer you because I am ignorant, but my
heart is pained by what you say. Matthias, you
can answer them, why do not you speak ?" He was

128 COREA.

instructed and baptized in prison by M. Kim. He
was anxious to be beheaded, and said to the judge,
" How is it that you do not carry out the laws of
the kingdom ? They order that every criminal con
demned to death should be beheaded, and yet you
order us to be beaten, to be killed by the 'board/ or
to be strangled." The judge, in great anger, ordered
him to receive fifty blows with the " board." Just
before being strangled, he cried out with a loud
voice : " 0 Jesus, my Master, I give Thee all I have,
my soul and my body." He was fifty-five years
old.

Teresa Kim was a pious person of the capital,
aged thirty-six, who had vowed her virginity to
Jesus Christ.

Agatha Y, aged thirty-seven, and Susanna Y,
her servant, aged forty-three, both widows, lived at
Seoul in great fervour; they both received fifty
blows with the "board" and were strangled.

Catherine Toki was by birth a slave in the
country. Her pagan master beat her severely, and
left her for dead, in consequence of her refusal to
perform some superstitious acts. Her mother took
her home and healed her wounds, but she remained
a cripple. She was arrested with the others, and
strangled, in the thirtieth year of her age, after
receiving seventy blows with the " board."

I send you, my dear confrere, the acts of some of
the martyrs of 1839. I am sorry that they did not
appear with the news of the persecution of that date.
It is now rather late, but they are so beautiful that

COREA. 129

the editors of the Annals will not, I am sure, make
any difficulty about publishing some of those which
are the most touching, as their publication cannot
fail to be most edifying in Europe. I am confident
that the Directors will do all they can not to deprive
the faithful of the history of these interesting events.
Would not Eome canonize or beatify some of the
martyrs? What a consolation that would be for
the poor Christians in Corea ! and what an encou
ragement for them in the midst of their sufferings
and trials ! I have no hesitation in saying that
many of them would brave torture more courageously
if they had before them the example of their brethren
reigning in heaven. I entreat the Directors to in
terest themselves about this at the court of Eome.
It is impossible for us to give any more information
than we have already sent. There is not the
slightest ground for doubting the fact of their martyr
dom ; and it is clear that they have suffered death for
their faith with courage and resignation. I had in
tended to translate their acts into Latin, but that is
impossible, as I have not the time to do so. I am
not even able to copy them out, and what I am
sending is only an abstract.

130

CHAPTER II.

CHINA.

Letter of M. Guillemin, Prefect Apostolic of the Mis
sion of Quang-tong and Quang-si, to the Directors
of the Pious Work of the Propagation of the Faith.

The mission of Quang-tong, which has long been
ubjected to severe trial, can now boast of having
given three martyrs to the Church. M. Chapdelain,
Missionary Apostolic of this province, was beheaded
at Quang-si, on the 29th of last February, together
with a young convert, whom he had brought to the
knowledge of the Gospel, and a young widow, named
Agnes, who had devoted herself to the instruction of
pagan children. I only received this news yester
day by a courier, who brought me several letters
from the province of Kouei-tcheou. I have but few
hours before the post leaves to look over them, and to
put in order what relates to this event : but the cir
cumstances which accompanied the martyrdom of
these three heroes of Christianity are so touching
and so edifying to souls who love God, that I cannot
make up my mind to defer laying them before you
even for a short time. Accept, gentlemen, this re
lation as a proof of my respect for the members of
your pious work, and of my veneration for the
worthy missionary, whose glorious end we envy.

CHINA. 131

M. Augustus Chapdelain having been appointed
to the mission of Quang-si, which from time imme
morial had been destitute of evangelical labourers,
left Hong-Kong in October, 1853, and after a disas
trous journey of three days, during which he was
robbed, and several times threatened with death, he
reached the province of Kouei-tcheou, from which he
was to make his way to his own mission. He found
in that place Mgr. Lyons, a zealous missioner, whose
long residence there had made him acquainted with
the language and custom of the country, in which he
instructed his new colleague. "When M. Chapdelain
came in sight of his promised land, he threw himself
on his knees to thank God for having brought him
to the place of his inheritance, and offering himself
to Him once more, he consecrated his whole power
and life to labour in the glorious work which was
entrusted to him. The fruits he produced soon cor
responded to his zeal. After two years' work ho
could reckon about two hundred converts. The
harvest was abundant, and the apostle could look
forward with consolation to the future which seemed
to be before him ; but soon the enemy of all good
interfered to disappoint his hopes, and raised against
him, under pretext of the following circumstances,
one of the most terrible persecutions on record in.
this age.

A young convert had a dispute with his wife, who
was still a pagan, and whom he had reproved for
her bad conduct. She applied to her father and
brother, who were officers in the court of the man-

132 CHINA.

darin, and as they had a most determined hatred of
the name of Christian, they took this opportunity to
give way to their revenge, and to bring to ruin not
only the Catholics of the place, but also the father
who directed them. They presented themselves be
fore the mandarin, and made a report against the
Christians, which was the most unjust and absurd
that can possibly be imagined. In it they stated
that Christianity was a false and perverse religion ;
that its followers taught people to fly like birds ;
that they were in possession of secrets of magic, by
which they could do what they pleased ; that their
leader was a certain foreigner named Ma, who came
from distant countries to excite the people to rebel
lion ; that he was collecting followers on every side,
and that it was high time for the authorities to
interfere to prevent the further progress of the evil.
Although this accusation was so palpably false, it
was received very readily by the mandarin, and it
was obvious that the persecution would be conducted
with unusual severity. The very heavens seemed to
confirm this sad presentiment, by giving out one of
those signs of coming storms, whereby the elect are
forewarned of the attack of the enemy. " Dedisti
metuentibus te significationem, ut fugiant a facie
arcus." " Thou hast given a warning to them that
fear thee : that they may flee from before the bow."
The day before the arrest there appeared in the air
a cross of light, surrounded by a brilliant crown,
which seemed to hang over the village of Yoa-chan,
and was visible alike to pagan and Christian. The

CHItfA. 133

pagans considered it unfavourable to the authors of
the accusation, but the Christians, on the contrary,
more accustomed to interpret the mysteries of the
Passion, saw in it new evidence that the crown was
only to be reached by means of the cross, and there
fore with redoubled prayers prepared themselves for
every trial to which it might please God to subject
them. The event proved the truth of their anticipa
tions. The next day, the nineteenth of the first
moon, which corresponds to the 24th of February,
the mandarin, without waiting, according to the cus
tom of the courts, for the end of the vacation,
ordered two officers to collect a sufficient number of
soldiers, and to arrest all the Christians of Yoa-
chan.

In some parts of China, as in Quang-si and Si-
ling-hien, the government does not keep a standing
army, but when any judicial sentence has to be car
ried out, one or more officers are chosen, according
to the importance of the case, to make an appeal to
the people, and especially to all who may be unem
ployed in the neighbouring villages. Those who are
collected in this way are a thousand times worse
than the regular soldiery, for, having nothing to lose,
they are less easily kept in order, and consequently
ransack and pillage whatever comes in their way.
The two officers collected in this way about a hun
dred men, armed with long pikes and large knives,
besides other weapons of offence. The father and
brother of the person who made the denunciation
joined their ranks, and in this way they marched

134 CHINA.

upon Yoa-chan, a village about three leagues from
where M. Chapdelain lived, and the place whither
the young woman who began the persecution had

been sent.

When this band first set out it was currently

reported that it was marching against the Christian
Tillage, and especially to seize its chief. A convert
living in the city, who had taken his degree as a
man of letters, had notice of it, and hastened to des
patch a messenger to warn the Father of the con
spiracy against him, and to offer him his own house
as a place of refuge. In this pressing danger the
missionary gladly accepted his proposal, and set off
immediately, under the guidance of a convert, who
led him to Si-ling-hien by an unfrequented path, at
the same time that the soldiers took the more direct
road. The Christians on their side, with the assist
ance of the young companion of the Father, collected
hastily the most precious things which would be
considered suspicious, such as the sacred ornaments,
the religious books, &c., and hid them as well as
they could in a neighbouring cottage. Having
done this, two or three Christians of Kouei-tcheou
went out to see what was going on, and to give
notice to their companions, while the rest waited for
the arrival of the soldiers, which took place soon
after. Although our poor Christians had some idea
of the danger they were in, they were far from
imagining it to be so terrible as it proved.

They hoped to be able to get off by paying a few

CHINA. 135

packets of sapecs,* but the soldiers announced on
their arrival, that they would not hear of any such
arrangement. They seized the most noted converts,
beat them; and putting them in chains, harassed
them in every way to make them discover the pro
perty of the missionary, the whole of which they
wished to take. All at once this ruffianly band dis
persed itself over the village, broke into all the houses,
plundering and robbing everything without mercy.
Oxen, goats, poultry, and bales of cotton, with
which the country abounds, all became the prey of
these devastators, who only left the Christians a
little maize and rice, that they might not die of
hunger, Thus laden with booty they retired, carry
ing away with them fifteen prisoners. Instead,
however, of taking them to the city, they brought
them to a pagan castle, that they might question
them at their pleasure, and so extract from them the
little money they still retained. By means of tor
ture they obtained from them two hundred packets
of money, (<£30 sterling,) and even after this barba
rous treatment, they brought them into court that
they might undergo more. Among them was the
young Agnes named before, whose virtue and un
shaken firmness we had so much occasion to admire.
Laurence Pe-mou, one of the Father's most faith
ful converts, succeeded in escaping from the soldiers
who searched for him. In anxiety for his master's

* Each packet contains a thousand sapecs, of which
there are twenty-eight in a penny.

136 CHINA.

safety he went towards Si-ling-hien, where M.
Chapdelain then was, and on joining him protested
that he wished to die with his own pastor, who had
come so far, and exposed his life so often to save his
soul. Soon afterwards five or six women, mothers
or wives of prisoners, came to Si-ling-hien with
their children in their arms, to see the Father, and
to learn from him what steps they ought to take in
their present difficult position. After conferring
together it was arranged that these women should
present themselves, with their children, to the man
darin, and reclaim from him their husbands, their
sons, and all that they had been robbed of. As
they, not unreasonably, expressed some fear for
themselves, Laurence Pe-mou said to them, " Why,
what are you afraid of? If you do not like to go
alone before the mandarin I will accompany you
myself. If it is necessary for us to die, let us have
no fear in offering our lives for the glory of God and
the salvation of our souls." With these words he
led the way to the court, and when they reached the
audience-chamber the women, according to the
Chinese custom in cases where persons make recla
mations without first asking permission to do so, set
up a loud screaming. The mandarin within, hearing
the noise, cama out to know the reason of it, but
instead of hearing their petition had them all beaten
and chained, discharging his wrath upon Laurence
Pe-mou in particular, for having dared to bring tho
women inside his court.

As we have already related, the P. Chapdelain

CHINA. 137

took refiige at Si-ling-hien, in the house of the
worthy convert Lo-kong-ye. He hoped that he
would be in safety there, not expecting that any one
would dare to search the house of a learned man
who was so much esteemed both in the city and in
its neighbourhood. He forgot, however, that to go
to the capital, to the very gate of the court, was
putting himself into the hands of his persecutors.
The first night he was there he might have been
able to retire to Kouei-tcheou, where he would have
found a secure asylum with his worthy colleagues,
Mgr. Penny, the superior of the mission, and his
neighbour Mgr. Lyons, who had already helped
him so much in preaching the Gospel in Quang-si.
But how could he fly from his dear converts, who
were still so young in the faith ? Would there not
be reason to fear that their courage would fail them,
if they saw their Father yield to the influence of
fear, and leave them to themselves in their danger ?
Like the good shepherd, he resolved to throw in his
lot with that of his sheep, in order that he might
teach them, if necessary, to sacrifice themselves for
the Lord, as they had already learnt from him how
to dedicate themselves to His service. Having
taken this resolution, M. Chapdelain only thought
of uniting himself in prayer to his Divine Master,
with the most complete abandonment of himself and
confidence in Him. It is to be regretted, that at
that solemn moment, when heaven was preparing to
give him his crown, he did not address to his
brethren some word of farewell, some salutation

138 CHINA.

which he might have known would be the last;.
Undoubtedly we should have seen in it sentiments
of the tenderest piety, and an ardent desire that
the glorious martyrdom for which he had always
sighed, should no longer be delayed. But, when he
saw heaven opened before him, he forgot earth,
and on bended knees began a prayer, which was
only ended by the arrival of the soldiers to drag
him away.

Before proceeding to his arrest, the chief judge
sent an officer to the house of Lo-kong-ye, to make
sure that he was really concealed there. "When the
messenger arrived, he pijpsented himself to M.
Chapdelain, and rtold him that he had come to seek
him by order of the mandarin. At these words the
missionary turned to him, and answered without the
slightest emotion, "My prayer is ended; go and
tell your master that I will be with him directly."

When the mandarin was assured of the presence
of M. Chapdelain, he sent a large body of officers
to surround the house of Lo-kong-ye, which stood
at a little distance from the court. The chief alone
entered the house, while the rest kept guard over
the approaches to it. Owing to the degree which
the worthy Lo-kong-ye had taken, no injury was
done to anything in his house; the venerable Lo-
kong-ye also, who is blind, and who ever since his
baptism has shown himself worthy of the name of
Christian, was treated with respect. But, taking M.
Chapdelain, together with the second son of Lo-
kong-ye, and the young convert who had accompa-

CHINA. 139

nied the father the day before, they put them in
chains, and conducted them to the tribunal of the
mandarin.

The courageous Pe-mou, with the five or six
Christian women who had accompanied him, was
there also, and on the evening of the same day, the
25th of February, the converts who had been arrested
at Yoa-chan the day before arrived, so that there
were altogether four or five and twenty assembled
to render homage to the holiness of their faith — a
beautiful spectacle to the court of heaven, and
touching for those poor converts, who, on first em
bracing Christianity, thus shared the ignominy of
their Saviour's life. From the time of their entrance
into prison, they were loaded with chains, their
limbs were tortured by blows with canes, and
cangues were added, which they had the happiness
of wearing all night for the glory of Jesus Christ.

The next day, the 26th of February, Laurence
Pe-mou was the first to appear before the manda
rin. He who had volunteered to follow the mission
ary in all his hardships, had the honour of confessing
Jesus Christ with all the firmness and courage with
which his faith inspired him.

The mandarin first attempted to shake him by
threats. "Why," he said to him, " do you practise this
religion of the Lord of heaven, which is so perverse,
and which excites people to rebellion?" "ITo,"
answered the generous neophyte, " the religion of
the Lord of heaven has nothing to do with what you
impute to it. What it teaches is to avoid evil,

140 CHINA.

to do good, and to save our souls." " Why do you
follow the Master Ma ?" (this was the Chinese name
of M. Chapdelain.) "Because he teaches me to
follow the true God, and to practise His holy
religion." " Will you still follow him ?" " Yes ; I
will never leave him." " Unless you abandon him,
and renounce your religion, I will have your head
cut off." " The mandarin can cut off my head, and
not only mine, but also those of my wife and chil
dren ; but to renounce my religion, the religion of
the Lord of heaven — to give up offering my humble
prayers and adorations to Him, oh, no ! I will never
be guilty of such treachery ! Mandarin ! cut off my
head if you will, but I will never be an apostate."

The mandarin in great indignation ordered him
to be beaten with canes, and said angrily to him :
" Well, since you wished to be beheaded, you shall
be." He then called one of his savage attendants,
and made him cut off his head.

It is not yet known what has become of the
body of this glorious martyr of Jesus Christ. Some
say that it has been buried ; others that it has been
thrown away. But what does it matter? God
will know where to find it when He wishes to clothe
it with the glory which is its due. It was only five
days since this worthy combatant had been regene
rated in the waters of baptism, and received the
name of the martyr S. Laurence, whose constancy
he imitated so well. As his holy patron refused to
leave S. Xystus, when he was taken to execution,
so Laurence Pe-mou never for a moment abandoned

CHINA. 141

his dear master. Like S. Laurence, he faced with
firmness the fury of the tyrant, and like him, too,
his soul, purified and made beautiful by the blood
so nobly shed, has gone to join the glorious army
of martyrs, and to share their splendour for eter
nity.

The execution of the youthful Agnes followed
that of Laurence Pe-mou, but, before relating her
triumph, it will be well to give some account of her
earlier years.

The daughter of an old Christian physician in
great poverty, Agnes Tsaou-kong was born in 1833,
in the province of Kouei-tcheou. She was remark
able from her infancy for her piety and persevering
goodness. Being left an orphan at the age of
fifteen, and entirely destitute, she was supported
by the charity of the missionaries of the province,
who sent her to school, where she made great pro
gress in reading and writing the Chinese language.
The following year she was married to a Christian,
but he died three or four years later, leaving Agnes
without any means of subsistence, but entirely re
signed to the will of God. In the meantime the
faith obtained an entrance into the province of
Quang-si, and the number of the faithful increased
so rapidly, that Mgr. Lyons, at the request of M.
Chapdclain, sent Agnes to him, to instruct persons
of her own sex in the Christian religion. She
executed with great exactness the charge which was
entrusted to her. Endowed with a virtue which was
superior to every trial, gentle, modest, and always

142 CHINA.

satisfied either with good or evil fortune, she tL ought
of nothing but of winning souls to God, and direct
ing them in the way of salvation. Thus did she
prepare herself by the discharge of the duties of
her state, for fighting the battle of the Lord with
heroic faith.

Agnes was arrested on the 24th of February,
and because she showed more courage than others,
she was put in chains, and brought before the
judge, who tried in a thousand ways to shake
her constancy. Her faith, however, was not to be
conquered, for, neither the promises, the threats,
nor the curses which the brutal mandarin heaped
upon her, nor the sight of the punishments which
he barbarously brought before her, were able to
weaken even for a moment her resolution to dedi
cate herself entirely to God, and to remain faithful
to Him to the last moment of her life. Among the
various questions which the mandarin addressed to
her, the following will best show the peace and
simplicity of her soul.

" "Whence are you ?" " From Kouei-tcheou, of
Hyn-y-fou." " Who taught you the Christian
religion ?" " My parents, who were always Chris
tians. I was also sent to school, where I learnt to
read a little." " What did you come here for ?"
" Two years ago, when a great number of persons
in this country embraced the Christian religion, I
came to teach their wives and daughters to pray
and to serve God." " Why do you teach them to
fly like birds ?" "I do not teach them to fly,

CHINA. 143

but to pray. The mandarin knows well that this
is a calumny which has been invented against us."
n Why do you instruct them by night, and not by
day ?" " Because they are at work in the daytime,
either in the fields, or spinning, and have only their
nights free." " I understand. Now you must tell
me the truth candidly, if you wish to save what
little life you have left. Are you not the wife of
the master Ma?'' "No,'' she answered, indig
nantly, " I am not : I did not know the father until
I came here."

The mandarin angrily addressed her with one of
the most revolting curses which even Chinese wick
edness could devise ; then continuing his questions :
" Tell me," he said, without disguising his merce
nary nature, "tell me how much money your
master Ma has ?" " I know nothing about that."
He put further questions to her, and ended by
saying : " If you will not renounce both your reli
gion, and your master Ma, I will have you put to
death." "Have me put to death if you please,
but I will never renounce the religion of my master '
Ma, which is that of the Lord of Heaven." " How
would you wish me to have you put to death?"
" In the same way as my master Ma."

The mandarin, consenting to this choice, had a
cage made for her, like the one in which M. Chap-
delain was already imprisoned. It was about a
metre and a half high,* and had a hole in the top,

* About five feet.

144 CHINA.

in which the head of the sufferer was inserted, and
by which he hung suspended, as his feet could
hardly reach the bottom of the cage. His arms
were stretched out, and fastened to great blocks of
wood, so that they could not be moved. The un
happy victim, thus suspended, and deprived of all
power of moving, was left without food sometimes
for five or six days, enduring all the tortures of
suffocation, before coming to the end of his sufferings.
Agnes was placed in her cage on the 23rd of the
first month, corresponding to our 28th of February,
about the same time as M. Chapdelain. As they
were placed opposite each other, at a little dis
tance apart, they were able to see each other, but
not to converse ; a touching circumstance for these
two martyrs, who had dedicated themselves to the
same work, and now saw each other exposed to the
same trial, with the hope of going to receive the
glorious reward of it together. On the 27th of the
same month, after passing four days in this cruel
torture, the holy and illustrious heroine, worn out
with hunger and thirst, and her whole appearance
quite changed by weakness, gave up her soul into
the hands of her Creator, and went to receive the
glorious crown of martyrdom from the hands of
Jesus Christ. It is very probable that her body has
been buried, but we have not yet been able to
ascertain the fact. Let us hope that God will one
day restore to His Church the precious relics of this
holy martyr, who has given us so admirable an ex
ample of fidelity in His service.

CHINA. 145

Lastly, after having witnessed with his own eyes
the combats of his generous converts, it was fitting
that the priest of Jesus Christ, the apostle of the
faith, should in his turn appear upon the scene, and
display the courage with which the grace of God had
filled his soul. Being first asked about his religion,
M. Chapdelain made the necessary replies. After
wards the mandarin put to him irrelevant questions,
such as these: "How much money have you?
"Why do you teach your followers to fly?" The
missionary either, as some think, not understanding
the mandarin clearly, or wishing to imitate our Lord
Jesus Christ in the court of Herod, remained silent,
and made no answer to these reproaches. The
enraged judge ordered him to receive a hundred blows
on the cheeks with a cruel thong of leather. One
stroke was enough to draw blood, so that a hundred,
administered with all the force that fanaticism and
revenge could inspire, must have entirely broken the
jaws, and knocked out the teeth of the glorious
martyr. Being thus rendered incapable of speaking
and answering, he received three hundred blows on
the back with a cane. During these terrible suffer
ings he did not breathe a single sigh, nor utter a
single complaint, which astonished the mandarin and
the' bystanders very much, as when the Chinese
undergo this punishment, they cry out loudly,
begging the mandarin to pardon them ; but the
confessor, who was united heart and soul to his
suffering Lord, was able to bear the most cruel
tortures without giving any sign of pain. The

10

14G CHINA.

mandarin attributed his extraordinary silence to his
skill in magic, and causing a dog to be killed, he
sprinkled the martyr's body with its blood; the
officers continuing to beat him without counting
the blows, until they saw that he was unable to
move.

He was then dragged to the prison, as it was impos
sible for him to walk a step. But by the merciful
goodness of God, he was shortly afterwards able to
rise and walk, as if he was in perfect health. The
officers who witnessed this new miracle, came up to
enquire how it was that at one moment he was
unable to stir, and was walking with ease the next.
The father answered with a smile : " It is the good
God who protects and blesses me." Although this
reply only showed the holiness of the generous
martyr, the madmen in their blindness considered it
a new proof of magic power, and had prepared for
him a dish of those viands which are reputed the
most unclean in the country, in order that they
might destroy the effect of the charm. As he was
aware that those who belong to secret societies hold
in great horror those kinds of food, which they
believe to be antidotes to their mysterious practices,
he tasted of everything in order to show that he was
affiliated to no proscribed sect ; but he ate very little,
although this was all the food he had from the time
of his arrest until he was admitted to the heavenly
banquet, as the mandarin had forbidden, under pain
of death, that any one should supply him with other
nourishment.

CHINA. 147

Bat these were only part of the trials which our
worthy confessor of the faith went through. During
the whole of the 27th he endured the terrible pun
ishment of the iron chain. Kneeling on fixed links
of this chain, his body was kept upright over it by
ropes tied to his head and hands, and fastened in
opposite directions. On the 28th he and the young
Agnes were placed in the cage which we have
described, and he remained in it the whole of that
day and the following night.

In the midst of this long and cruel agony, when
the martyr, pressed as grapes in the wine-press, had
but little life remaining, the mandarin sent one of
his servants to offer him his liberty for the sum of
four hundred taels. The father replied that he had
no money, but only books. The mercenary officer
sent word a second time, that if he could not afford
so much, his life should be spared for a hundred and
fifty taels. But this time, instead of repeating that
he had no money, the missionary replied ; " Let the
mandarin do what he pleases with me, I am in his
hands." No doubt, although so large a sum was
neither in his own power, nor in that of his poor
Christians to collect, he might have told the manda
rin that he would obtain it from his friends at Kouei-
tcheou, which would have given him time, and per
haps an opportunity of saving his life. But God did
not allow him to think of this expedient, because it
would have prolonged the days of his pilgrimage, and
deprived him of the happiness which so many saints

148 CHINA.

have envied, of giving his blood for the Saviour who
shed His own for love of us.

Thus arrived the 29th of February, the happy day
on which our martyr was to end his passing suffer
ings, and enter upon eternal bliss. The mandarin,
hearing that an extraordinary noise had been heard
during the night in the place where he was kept,
hastened to go himself to him. He found him still
alive, and fearing lest he should escape by some
magical device, had him taken out of his cage, and
calling an officer who was armed with a large knife,
desired him to cut off his head. Thus ended the
apostolate of our dear and venerable brother M.
Augustus Chapdelain, which, although short, was full
of labours and merits. He was born at La Eochelle,
in the diocese of Coutanges, on the 6th of January,
1814, ordained priest on the 10th of June, 1843,
started for the missions in 1851, and was beheaded
for the faith on the 29th of February, 1856.

13 ut what became of the remains of this glorious
martyr after his execution? Perhaps it would be
better to drop a veil over the scenes of horror which
that day witnessed, and the outrages of which those
precious relics were the subject ; yet w^e must
reveal what common report has told us. If on the
one hand we see acts of cruelty to which history
scarcely affords a parallel, on the other we know that
the power of God protects the bodies o£ His elect,
and that they will not be lost for ever, but will
appear again in glory on the day of resurrection.
The precious head of the martyr was taken out of

CHINA. 149

the city, and tied to a tree. It is generally the cus
tom, when the head of a criminal is thus exposed in
public, to put it in a case, which protects it from the
insults of the populace. But no such care was taken
of the martyr of Jesus Christ. His head was simply
hung up by the hair, and the boys and passers by
knocked it down with stones, so that the venerable
relic was seen rolling about in the dust and mud,
until it was devoured by the unclean animals, who
fought for the fragments of it. Nothing was pre
served but the hair, which was tied up in a knot in
the Chinese fashion. After remaining in the dust
for more than a month, it was found by a young
convert, and taken to Mgr. Lyons, who recognised it
as being undoubtedly that of the martyr.

His body has also disappeared. Some say that it
was buried in the place set apart for criminals, but
others tell us, which is more probable, that it was
cut into small pieces, and given to be devoured by
the unclean animals, with which the country
abounds. But what has become of his heart ? It is
well known that in China, when a criminal has been
executed, his heart is immediately taken out. No
one could imagine the horrible fate of that of our
holy martyr ; the mind recoils from believing it, the
tongue refuses to tell it, the hand trembles to write
it. It was taken out of the body, and placed, still
beating, on a dish, where it was examined with great
curiosity by the bloodthirsty savages. It was then
cut into pieces, put into a frying-pan, and cooked
with the fat of a pig, after which the cannibals

150 CHINA.

devoured it with the voracity of wild beasts. Would
it be possible for the degradation of man to commit
any more savage excess? Incredible as it may
appear, this is not an uncommon event in this
unhappy heathen country, where men are often
found so destitute of human feeling as to feed upon
the hearts of their kind, under the delusion that to
devour them in this way will give them indomitable
courage in battle. Such excesses are, however, more
execrable in the case of a poor missionary, who only
loved others, and gave them all the compassion of
his heart, thus becoming their victim, while he had
no other feelings towards them but those of tender
ness and love.

In spite of all this barbarity we will say, Blessed
be the martyrdom of our dear M. Chapdelain, which
rejoices our hearts, and shows us that we have a
home in heaven, where God will reward us largely
for the sufferings we encounter in His service.

It might be supposed that this barbarous persecu
tion would satisfy the cruelty of the mandarin ; but
no ; the three first victims of his anger had hardly
expired before he applied fresh tortures to his other
prisoners. The Christians tell us that some of them
had as much to suffer as the three first, and very
nearly received the same crown. Further, the man
darin laid hands on those who had escaped from the
beginning of the persecution, had them dragged be
fore his tribunal, inflicted a cruel scourging upon
them, and imposed upon them a ransom which was
greater than their whole property. Some have been

CHINA. 151

obliged to sell everything they had, and others could
only free themselves by borrowing money at the
exorbitant interest which is customary, so that they
will have a heavy burden to bear for many years.
Lastly, when Mgr. Lyons last wrote to me, nine
prisoners still remained in prison without any hope
of release.

What will become of this little Christian colony,
which promised so well at the outset? May those
martyrs who have watered it with their blood pro
tect it from their thrones in heaven, restore peace to
it, and increase in it the number of the worshippers
of the true God ! May the venerable brother whose
lot we envy, whom we knew so well, and to whom
we gave the embrace of peace at the moment of his
departure for his glorious mission, deign to extend to
us a hand of succour, and aid us poor missionaries,
so often tossed about by stormy waves, that we may
reach the harbour where he has arrived so happily !

Be pleased to accept, Gentlemen, on my part, as
well as on that of my worthy colleagues, the expres
sion of the sentiments of gratitude and respectful
attachment with which I have the honour to be

Your most humble and obedient servant,

GUILLEMIN,

Prefect Apostolic of Quang-tong,
and Quang-si.

152

CHAPTER III.

WESTERN TONGKING.

ARTICLE I.

Letter of Mgr. Retard, Bishop of Acanthus, and
Vicar Apostolic of Western Tongking, about the
glorious martyrdom of M. Schoeffler.

The severity of the persecution increases rather
than diminishes. In the months of January and
February several of the lower mandarins published
special edicts against the faith ; but, to say the truth,
they did not alarm, us much, nor interfere with the
exercise of our functions, until a letter, which Mgr.
Pellerin wrote to us on the 23rd of February, made
us think more seriously of them. He told us that
the Prince Hoang-bao, the eldest brother of the
king, who believed himself the rightful heir of the
Annamite throne, had made several attempts to
escape from prison, in order to seek assistance to
enable him to seize the crown, and had now suc
ceeded in regaining his liberty: that the king
strongly suspected the Christians of favouring his
rival's flight, and that several old mandarins, enemies
of the Christians, encouraged and kept alive these
suspicions, so that he was much enraged against the

WESTERN TONGKING. 153

converts, and at several councils which he had held
with his ministers, had expressed his intention of
getting rid of our religion entirely. He had already
begun to procure information about the number of
the Christians, about their assemblies and their
priests : he had sent commissioners and spies
throughout his whole kingdom to discover where the
missionaries had taken shelter, and to arrest them,
and it was certain that he had secretly sent severe
decrees against the faith, and its professors, to the
governors of every province. Mgr. Pellerin sent us
at the same time a copy of the following edict, which
the chief mandarins of the capital had distributed
in the province of Puxuan, under the eyes of the
king, and probably therefore by his order.

" RENEWAL OF THE PROHIBITION OF THE BELIGION
OF JESUS.

" The iniquitous religion of Jesus has been for a
long time severely and publicly prohibited ; never
theless, we know that many people only obey the
prohibition in outward form, and do not repent of or
abandon the wicked doctrines which they have been
accustomed to follow. Wherein, however, they are
most to be blamed is, that they have gone so far as
to attempt to seduce a Royal Prince. The heads of
districts, and the authorities of the villages, have the
audacity to tolerate them in spite of the prohibitions
of the law, and take no pains to find them out, or to
denounce them to the courts of justice. Further,

154 WESTERN TONGKING.

the mandarins of Vien regard them with indifference,
and do not trouble themselves about them, but allow
these abuses to exist at the very gates of the palace,
without endeavouring to discover and to destroy
them. Such conduct as this is a dishonour to the
dignity of mandarin.

" Henceforward, all public functionaries must com
bine all their forces, and have the resolution to make
searching and minute investigations in all the vil
lages under their jurisdiction, by night as well as by
day; and wherever they find a follower of the
wicked religion of Jesus, they shall arrest him, and
bring him for trial to the courts of justice. Those
who denounce and cause the arrest of a priest of this
iniquitous religion, shall be liberally rewarded ; and
if we know that the officials employed are still neg
ligent in this important affair, not only will the
heads of districts and the authorities of the villages
have a heavy penalty imposed upon them, but even
the mandarins of Vien will not escape without severe
punishment."

You see, then, from this paper, and from the letter
of Mgr. Pellerin, that the king and his mandarins
believe that the Christians endeavoured to gain over
the Prince Hoang-bao, in order to bring about his
escape. This is a great mistake, and a notable
calumny, but for all that it might easily be an
excuse for raising a cruel persecution, or rather for
continuing the existing one for some time longer : it
would be a specious pretext for changing the king's

WESTERN TONGKING. 155

dispositions towards us, which have hitherto seemed
to be peaceful. However that may be, neither the
letter of Mgr. Pellerin, nor the decree of the manda
rins of the capital, would have disturbed us much,
had not the arrest of M. Schoeffler fallen upon us
like a thunderbolt.

It took place on the first of March, and I shall have
to say more about it presently. About that time there
were many bad reports about; it was said that a
new edict had been sent to the chief mandarins, and
that spies were going about the country in search of
the missionaries and the native priests. The fact
was, that spies had been seen in different parts, and
that two or three of them remained at Ke-vinch for
several days, but it is not clearly known for what
purpose. It seems as if it was to watch the move
ments of the rebels and our proceedings as well.
As for the secret decree, it was certainly true that the
king has issued one against the faith. As it was
much talked about, I resolved to find out what it
really was, and succeeded in doing so. In the
course of last month some of our Christians obtained
a copy of this terrible decree from the office of the
chief mandarin of criminal justice. I give you a
translation of it, not perhaps quite literal, but exactly
containing its meaning.

156 WESTERN TONGKING.

" City of Tua-Eien (Hue).

" COMMANDS OF THE KING.

" The doctrine of Jesus comes from the Europeans.
It forbids the worship of ancestors and the venera
tion of spirits : it speaks of heaven and of holy water
to deceive its followers and to delude the hearts of
men. The propagators of these wicked doctrines
know that the laws of the state can never tolerate
their existence, and therefore they put before the
people the representation of the punishment of their
Master' Jesus, to persuade the ignorant to meet death
without hesitation. "What a fatal deception, what a
strange hallucination is this !

" Under the reign of Minh-menh this religion was
strictly forbidden by several decrees, and every time
that a Christian refused to abjure it he was severely
punished. In the time of Thien-tri many instruc
tions were issued for the renewal of the prohibitions
against similar teaching, and no pardon was given to
any Christian who remained contumacious, unless he
was aged or infirm. Thus we see the great anxiety,
severity, and prudence with which our holy prede
cessors endeavoured to destroy the evil from the very
time of its commencement. By the scrupulous ob
servance of our ceremonies, together with the study
of music and the best form of vestments, they
arrived at the highest pitch of civilization. Upright
ness is the basis of our religion, but it would soon be
contaminated if the doctrines of these men of savage

WESTERN TONGKING. 157

dispositions and brutal habits became common.
When the heart is corrupted, and no pains are taken
to correct it, right reason becomes obscured and
falls. Therefore to uproot evil customs and to clear
away their darkness, is of the utmost importance for
the morals of succeeding ages.

"We, Tu-Duc, consistently following out the system
which we have always pursued, of seeing, hearing,
and examining attentively whatever is necessary in
all our acts, judgments, and orders, and of ascertain
ing with great care what it is most expedient to do,
charged our ministers to make a report upon a memo
rial, which our privy council laid before us, regarding
the necessity of prohibiting the religion of Jesus.

" The advice of our ministry is, that the European
priests should be cast into the depths of the sea or of
the rivers, in honour of the true religion, and that
the Annamite priests, as well as their disciples,
whether or not they are willing to trample upon the
cross, should be cut in two, in order that the severity
of the law may be manifest to all.

" Having given much thought to these proposals,
and considering them reasonable, we have ordered
the mandarins to put them in force, secretly and
without any proclamation. If therefore any Euro
pean priests shall come by stealth into our kingdom,
and shall travel about the provinces to deceive and
to seduce the hearts of the people, whosoever shall
denounce them, or deliver them into the hands of the
mandarins, shall receive at once a reward of eight
silver dollars, and afterwards one half of the property

158 WESTERN TONGKING.

of those who have given shelter to the criminal — the
other half being due to the royal treasury. Ail
those, whether great or small, who have given shelter
to a European, no matter whether for a short or a
long time, shall be cut in two and cast into the river,
excepting only children who have not arrived at the
age of reason, who shall be transported to a distant
place of banishment. Those who were absent, and
were not aware of the shelter given to the priest in
their house, shall be exempted from all punishment.'*
This is the secret edict.

Our dear companions, Titaud and Castex, were on
the point of being arrested, but thanks to the special
protection of Divine Providence, were able to save
themselves.

I now come to the case of the martyrdom of M.
Schceffler, at once the most terrible and the most
glorious in the annals of our mission. The remem
brance of our most beloved colleague pierces my heart
with most bitter regret for having lost him in this
life ; but on the other hand my soul is filled with
consolation at his triumph, and great confidence in
his merits. I will not dwell upon the history of
that part of his life which preceded his coming to
that mission, since in truth I know nothing more of
it, than that he came from the diocese of Nancy.
But from the virtues which I saw him practise, and
from the excellent qualities which I discovered in
him, I may assert without fear of mistake, that his
youth in France was as exemplary as his apostolate in
Tongking was zealous.

WESTERN TONGKING. 159

You know that he arrived here towards the middle
of the year 1848, when I was with M. Castex, at
the end of the province of Doai. From that time,
until the hour of his arrest, he was continually occu
pied in the study of the language, in fulfilling the
duties of his ministry, or in recovering from his
attacks of sickness. So great was the zeal with
which he devoted himself to the study of the lan
guage, that in five or six months he was able, not
only to hear confessions, but also to give instructions
to the Christians. He began at the same time the
study of the Chinese characters, which is of great
use, although not absolutely necessary, For this
purpose he had copies made of all the characters in
the great dictionary of Deguignes, and afterwards
wrote out all their meanings.

As regards his priestly functions, I desired that he
should remain with, me for about a year, in order
that he might learn our way of exercising them ; for
you know how important it is for a missionary, who
has just arrived in a country of which he knows
nothing, to have rules for his conduct towards the
native priests and Christians, and to follow the
method always pursued by his older colleagues, so
that all the missionaries may unite their strength,
and act with identity of design and uniformity of
action.

M. Schceffler accompanied me in my consoling
pastoral visit to Ke-Bang, in the year 1849. Before
the beginning of October he set out for the province
of Xu-Doai, which was the district assigned to him.

160 WESTERN TONGKING.

Xu-Doai contains about sixteen thousand Christians,
divided into four parishes, which extend over an
immense territory, partly covered with mountains
and large forests. You will see, from the follow
ing annual account of his administration, what
was the success of M. Schceffler as an apostle. He
had two hundred baptisms of children of unbelievers,
forty-one of children of Christians, and twenty-three
of adults ; four thousand seven hundred and seven
confessions ; three thousand three hundred and
fifty-one communions; fifty-two administrations of
the holy Viaticum ; and one hundred and twenty-
five of extreme unction. Is not this a glorious work
for a young missionary who was suffering from fever
for the greater part of the year ?

Although M. Schceffler, since his arrival in these
parts, had often been attacked by illness, and that
so violently, that no less than three times I thought
he would have died in my arms, still he appeared
in good health when I sent him to Doai ; and he was
beside himself with joy at the thought of going to so
distant a country, where there were many people
to whom the faith had never been preached, and for
whose conversion every hour seemed to him as a
hundred years.

I do not remember the precise day on which he
arrived at Bau-no, the chief place of one of the
two parishes of Lower Xu-Doai. There, he expected
to begin his apostolic ministry ; but as he thought
that his journey to the city of Son-tai was known to
the mandarins, by their immediately issuing a

WESTERN TONGKING. 161

decree against the faith and its ministers; and
because he was afraid of being accused of communi
cating with the rebels, who were then holding meet
ings in the northern part of the province, he remained
carefully concealed at Bau-no for some days, and
then retired to two Christian places in the neigh
bourhood, where he was able to exercise his zeal,
although secretly and with caution.

He was still at Bau-no at the end of February,
when he received my pastoral letter about the
jubilee. As he had completed about that time, with
the assistance of a native priest, the ministrations
necessary for those places, he thought it better to go
first to open the jubilee in the parishes higher up
the country, where he had not yet been, and then to
return to the lower part of the province. He started
therefore on the first of March for a village about
four leagues distant. There are not more than two
or three pagan villages along that road, which I
know very well ; the rest is all mountainous and
desert, with paths winding through brambles and
shrubs. It was in this wild and savage tract, that
our beloved colleague fell into the hands of the bar
barians, in the manner that I shall now relate.

On account of the wars, or rather the brigandage,
with which those mountainous regions abound, the
mandarin placed last year commissioners of country
police in every district, to watch over the country
at night, and to arrest suspected people. These
officers have each a party of ten or fifteen men.
The commissioner of this place, together with the

162 WESTERN TONGKING.

syndic of a neighbouring village, both pagans, knew
that a European had been in Bau-no for two
months, and hearing that he intended to go higher
up the country, they determined to capture him.
They laid snares for him along the road, and placed
ambushes in the thickets ; sentinels were posted in
different directions ; and they themselves, with some
other followers, pretended to be hunting deer in the
neighbourhood. It was known that the pagans had
some wicked designs, but it was supposed that they
would only execute them at night ; it was resolved,
therefore, that M. Schceffler should set out late in
the day. A native priest, vicar of the parish, went
on with two disciples to prepare the house where
the missionary was to lodge. When they arrived
at the place, where the officers were pretending to
hunt, they were arrested. A linen bag, containing
a pyx, the silver boxes of holy oil, and other things
necessary for the administration of the sacraments,
was taken from them, and made the police suspect
that they were followers of the European whom they
were waiting for, and whose arrival was therefore
probably at hand. They took them a little way
off, behind a group of thick trees, and having bound
them, and left them in charge of several ruffians,
they returned to the ambush where they expected
their prey.

M. Schceffler, knowing nothing of what had hap
pened, and advancing cheerfully with one of his
catechists and some Christians, fell into the snare
which was prepared for him. The neophytes who

WESTERN TONGKING. 163

guided him succeeded in escaping, but he and the
catechist were taken to the place were the Annamite
priest and his companions were kept prisoners. At
night they were all five taken before the commis
sioner of country police, and the worthy Annamite,
declaring himself to be the chief of the disciples of
M. Schoeffler, used all the powers of his ingenuity,
and all the treasures of his eloquence to move the
hearts of the officers, and to persuade them to set
his master at liberty. Besides a bar and an ounce
weight of silver, which they took from M. Schceffler's
purse, they asked as the ransom of our beloved col
league, a hundred more bars of silver, and one
ounce of gold ; that is to say, a sum equal to twelve
thousand francs.*

It was impossible for him to pay it at once,
especially in a place like that ; and his captors, who
believed him to be worth many millions, would nob
abate a farthing of their demand. " Well," said
M. Schoeffler, "since you persist in requiring so
large a sum for my release, at least set my four
followers at liberty, for no one but they know where
to obtain it." They approved of his proposal, and
set free his four fellow- prisoners. Then our dear
colleague, seeing that he was alone, and that no one
else was compromised for his sake, rejoiced exceed
ingly, and asked to be taken immediately before the
mandarins.

In the meantime, the good Annamite priest ob
tained the same night a loan of ten bars of silver, and
* .£480.

164 WESTERN TONGKING.

"was bringing them to the officers, with the intention
of giving bills of exchange for the remainder of the
sum, which they had refused to abate. But before
he arrived at the village where the beloved pri
soner was detained, he met some Christians who
were leaving it, and from, them he learnt that the
police who had taken him the day before, regretted
very much that they had released him, as they
heard he was a priest, that they had secretly placed
men all round the village, in order to arrest him
again, and to take from him whatever money he
had ; not meaning to set free the missionary, whom
they had resolved to make over to the mandarins,
for the sake of the reward of the thirty bars of silver,
which was promised by the king. On the receipt
of this intelligence the Annamite priest at once took
to flight ; and he did wisely, for he would undoubt
edly have been seized and robbed by those ruffians.
M. Schceffler would not have been saved, his sorrow
would have been increased, as well as the difficulties
of his position, and the mission would have had to
mourn the further loss of a priest of the country.
Thus all hope of ransoming M. Schceffler fell to the
ground. He himself, afraid of losing this opportu
nity of suffering for the love of Jesus Christ, and of
gaining the palm of martyrdom, was very urgent
with his captors, that they should hand him over to
the mandarins without delay. His request was
granted on the evening of the second of March.
Such, Gentlemen, and dear brethren, are the prin
cipal particulars of the arrest of M. Schoeffler.

WESTERN TONGKING. 165

When he was consigned to the chief mandarins
of the province, he was submitted to an examina
tion in their presence, that they might discover his
name, country, and rank, the purpose for which he
had come, what he had done since his arrival, and
the places where he had lived or passed through.
They also asked him to whom the property found
with him belonged, and if he knew, before coming
to that country, that the Christian religion was
strictly prohibited in it. Our beloved companion
replied that his name was Augustine, that he was
a native of Nancy in France, a Catholic priest, of
the age of twenty-nine years, that he had come
there to preach the Gospel, and that since his
arrival he had done so whenever he could ; that he
knew very well, even before he left France, that
the Catholic religion was strictly prohibited in that
kingdom, but that that was the principal reason of
his coming to it rather than to any other ; that since
his arrival, he had passed through many provinces,
and been lodged in many houses, that he did not
remember the names of many of them, and that he
would never denounce to the mandarins those which
had not escaped his memory. The next day, which
was the 5th of March, they put the same questions
to him, and he gave the same answers. The chief
mandarin immediately wrote and despatched a
report of the affair to the king, which contained a
somewhat romantic account of the arrest of our
colleague. You will not be surprised at that,
Gentlemen, for you know how the mandarins prefer

166 WESTERN TONGKINC.

plausibility to truth ; besides, they very likely were
not acquainted with what really happened. With
this report they sent the sentence of death, pro
nounced by the chief mandarin, and concluded in
the following terms : —

"Having taken counsel with the two chief offi
cials of the civil and criminal courts, we have pro
nounced the following sentence :

" Ser Ao-tu-dinh (Augustine) is a European, who,
in spite of the prohibitions of the laws, has had the
audacity to enter this kingdom, and to travel about
It, for the purpose of preaching his religion, and
seducing and deceiving the people, as was clearly
proved against him at his trial. Therefore, accord
ing to the king's decree, M. Augustine is condemned
to be beheaded, and to be cast into the waters of the
sea or the rivers, as an example and warning to
the people. The wicked man is so careful of those
whom he has instructed, and who have given him
shelter in their houses, that although he has been
examined several times, he obstinately persists in
refusing to give up their names. The officer who
arrested him was not able to give any information
on the subject ; but it is evident that any one who
investigated the case would find that a great many
persons are concerned in it. Therefore we request,
according to the report of the privy council, that no
further researches be made about it. With regard
to the authorities, and the other persons who dis
covered and captured this priest, we request for
them the reward of three hundred ounces of silver,

WESTERN TONGKING. 167

promised in the king's decree. Also, the mandarin
of the soldiers, who directed the search for him,
seems to us deserving of praise and remuneration.
We await the commands of his majesty, and shall
conform ourselves entirely to them. Lastly, we
request that the things taken from the prisoner may
be burnt.

" This is the result of the trial, and our sentence ;
and having thus submitted the whole affair to his
majesty, we prostrate ourselves before him, and
await his commands.

" Fourth year of Tu-Duc,
" Twenty-eighth day of the second month
(March 30)."

After this time our beloved confrere was nofc
examined any more, nor did he receive any blows
with rods, or the honours of the cage, as was the
case with M. Carrier. He was confined in the
prison of those condemned to death, in company
with them, with a cangue on his neck, and chains
on his feet, both day and night. Those who know
anything of Annamite prisons, and of their inmates,
will be able to understand the pain he must have
suffered. How terrible a punishment for a Euro
pean priest, to find himself alone, six thousand
leagues from his own country, in a loathsome
prison, covered with disgusting insects, in the midst
of wicked pagans, who regard him as a sort of
wild beast, who make game of his innocence, weary
him with absurd questions, and continually offend

168 WESTERN TONGKING.

his ears with expressions of indecency. His neck
galled by the collar, and his feet by the chains,
without a friend by whose conversation he can re
lieve his sufferings, without a single creature to
whom he can say a word to lessen the bitterness
of his heart ! M. Schoeffler always appeared cheer
ful, and contented with his lot. In truth, when
considered with the eyes of faith, it is the most
glorious and the happiest that a missionary can
hope for ; and we may well believe that our Divine
Master, who chose that he should drink the chalice
of His bitterness, fortified him also with the unction
of His grace.

On our part, we did all we could to alleviate the
sufferings of his captivity. As soon as I heard of
his arrest, which I only did after he had been de
livered to the chief mandarin, I despatched one of
my Christians with a letter of consolation, and
money to provide him with necessaries, and to
enable him to gain over by presents the good will
of the mandarins. My messenger was able to con
vey the letter to him, to see him, and to be seen
by him, but did not succeed in speaking with him.
He also obtained his separation from the other
prisoners, and had him placed in a room belonging
to the jailer, near the prison. There M. Schoeffler
tranquilly remained, breathing purer air, and not
being fettered during the daytime; he ..was also
allowed to walk in the court yard, and to amuse
himself by talking to the soldiers on guard, who
showed him great civility and respect. His condi-

WESTERN TONGKING. 169

tion was certainly improved, but he was most care
fully watched, as the chief mandarin had strictly
forbidden any strangers to be allowed to speak to
him. Nevertheless, one of his catechists succeeded
in obtaining access to the court-yard in the dis
guise of a soldier. The master and his disciple took
care only to look at each other stealthily, and only
to converse by signs; but fearing lest the mute
eloquence of their conversation should prove too
much for their feelings, they separated, to prevent
the bystanders from, noticing their emotion. My
messenger went several times to the jailer's house,
but he was unable to hold any communication with
M. Schceffler except by looks. A good Christian
obtained leave from an officer on guard to salute the
prisoner, and to bring him a present of some fruit ;
but being touched at seeing him, and beginning to
weep, he was perceived by the chief mandarin, who
happened to be passing through the court-yard, and
who immediately gave the officer a severe repri
mand, and ordered him to be changed ; he then
repeated his command that no Christian should be
admitted. In spite of all his precautions, however,
an Annamite priest succeeded in getting in, and
hearing the confession of the prisoner.

The royal decree of the 30th day of the second
month, concerning M. Schoeffler, reached the capital
on the llth of April. It ran as follows : —

(Red Seal.) " Having seen the report made to us
of the arrest of a European priest in the province of
Son-tai, we desire our ministers to examine it and

170 WESTERN TONGKING.

to despatch our reply to the governor of the said
province, in order that he may execute our com
mands, in concert with the civil and criminal
courts.

" The laws of the kingdom, published to instruct
the people and to inspire them with fear, strictly
forbid the religion of Jesus: nevertheless, one M.
Augustine, a priest, has ventured to enter our states
secretly for the purpose of preaching it, and thus
seducing and deceiving the people. When he was
arrested he made a full confession of the fact. Let
M. Augustine therefore be beheaded immediately,
and be thrown into the river, according to the law
for the destruction of the wicked ; and let every one
conform himself to our former decrees on this
subject."

According to this decree, M. Shceffler should have
been executed immediately, but this was not done.
The chief mandarin had the painful cangue taken off
him, and a lighter chain substituted for it ; he then
took him out of the house of the jailer and brought
him to his own palace. There he had more liberty,
and was allowed to walk in the court-yards as much
as he pleased. The bar of silver, and the rest of the
money which had been found on him, were expended
by the mandarin in providing him with proper food.
This magistrate often conversed with him, and pro
fessed great esteem and respect for him, treating him
with great courtesy, and expressing sorrow at seeing
him reduced to such a condition. Still he was not
allowed to speak to any one, and the strictness of

WESTERN TONGKING. 171

this surveillance was no doubt the reason why he
did not write at all to us. He was, however, able to
receive many letters, both of ours and of those which
came for him from Europe, and they must have
given him much consolation and encouragement, as
they were all, and mine especially, written for that
purpose. But perhaps, on the other hand, they may
have pained him by bringing before him our grief at
his loss, our sorrow for his sufferings, and our regret
that we could not take his place, or at least share
with him the glory of martyrdom. That palm,
however, was reserved for him alone, and you shall
now hear how soon he obtained it.

It was on the first of this month of May, the
beautiful month of Mary, that he obtained this great
happiness. The following are the particulars of this
glorious event, gathered partly from the testimony
of a Christian who was an eye-witness of it, and
partly from a letter of the parish priest of the place
where he suffered. About noon the chief mandarin
ordered out two regiments, and a detachment of
elephants, horses, guns, and every soft of arms, as if
to set out on an expedition. The guns were to be
loaded, and the soldiers armed as for an assault.
Every one supposed that the chief mandarin was
going to attack a band of rebels, or to search for
some den of assassins, but in reality all these pre
parations were made for the purpose of taking out
M. Schceffler to execution. The chief mandarin,
fearing lest the Christians should rise on this sor
rowful occasion, and attempt to rescue the mission-

172 WESTERN TONGKING.

ary, made that parade of soldiers to intimidate them,
and gave out that it was for another purpose.

When he ordered M. Schoeffler to be brought out,
all the officers of the mandarins and all the prisoners
showed signs of grief; they had had time to become
acquainted with him, and his virtues had won their
love. M. Schoeffler, on the contrary, when he heard
that the time for him to do battle had arrived, was
filled with an exceeding joy : he threw off his sandals
immediately, in order that he might go out the more
quickly and readily to die. The chief mandarin,
who feared a rising, remained on the terrace, with a
regiment of armed soldiers around him.

When they left the city they proceeded to the
place of execution in the following order: a few
steps in front of our beloved colleague walked a
soldier, carrying like a standard a placard, in which
was written in large letters,

" PROCLAMATION.

" M. Augustine, a European priest, has dared, in
spite of the prohibitions of the religion of Jesus, to
come secretly into the kingdom and preach it to
deceive the people. On his arrest he confessed the
whole. His guilt is clear. He is condemned to be
beheaded and thrown into the river.

" Fourth year of Tu-Duc.
" Fifth day of the second month." "

WESTERN TONGKING. 173

Eight soldiers, sabre in hand, walked beside
M. Schceffler. He was preceded bj two companies
of fifty armed men each, half lancers and half fusi
liers, who walked alternately in two lines, and two
elephants formed the rear-guard. The hero of the
faith proceeded in triumph in the midst of this im
posing escort, with smiling countenance and head
erect, carrying his chain in one hand, and re
peating prayers with fervour. What a beautiful
sight is the death of the martyr ! The greater part
of the immense multitude which was assembled was
filled with astonishment. " Did you ever see such a
hero?" the pagans said to each other. " He goes to
death as eagerly as others to a festival. What
courage, to show no sign of fear. How beautiful he
is ! What goodness and sweetness is written on his
countenance ! Why does our king put such men to
death ?" Still there were some ruffians present who
loaded him with insulting and derisive words. Alas !
that men should be everywhere the same; some
feeling and honest souls, who are touched by the
sight of virtue under persecution, and others whose
perverseness it only enrages and excites to fury.

When the martyr arrived at the place of execution,
he knelt down for a few moments, and offered his life in
sacrifice to God ; he took hold of the crucifix which
he had brought with him, and kissed it three times
with great tenderness. At the bidding of the execu
tioner, he drew aside his tunic, and laid his neck
bare, with an air of unspeakable grace. When the
executioner had bound his hands behind his back,

WESTERN TONGKING.

and made him kneel down again, he raised his eyes
to heaven, and said ; " Now do thine office quickly."
'*' What does he say? What does he say?'' asked
the officer who presided. " He says," replied the
executioner, " that I must make haste." " Not yet,
not yet," interrupted the mandarin, " wait for the
signal from the cymbals, and do not strike until it
sounds the third time." The solemn hour was now
come, at which our beloved colleague and affectionate
friend was to ascend to heaven. He was surrounded
by three rows of soldiers, like a triple circle of iron ;
the first row carried drawn sabres, the second
muskets, and the third lances raised. The sound of
the cymbal was heard, and the scimitar descended
upon the victim's neck, but the hand of the exe
cutioner trembled, so that three blows were needed
to separate the head, and even then he was obliged
to complete the work with a saw.

The spectators were almost all pagans, as there are
very few Christians in Son-tai; besides, as they lived
in distant villages, they knew nothing of the time of
execution. However, the head had scarcely fallen,
when the multitude, instead of going hastily away,
as they generally do after an execution, ran eagerly
forward to collect the martyr's blood. The people
by some wonderful instinct understood for once that
the sufferer was not a criminal but a hero, an illus
trious victim of tyranny, a saint in whom everything
•was worthy of respect, and who would exercise a
beneficial influence over all. Thus although they
were all pagans, they emulated each other in obtain-

WESTERN TONGKING. 175

ing his clothes, his turban, and even the rope with
which his hands were tied; but as these were not
enough for all, they were torn into a thousand pieces,
that every one might possess some relic of him.
Many pulled up the grass which was steeped in his
blood, and others dipped pieces of paper into it.

There was one pagan, a subaltern mandarin, who
brought with him a white silk dress and two yards of
linen, and when the time of execution arrived, threw
them down near the martyr, hoping that some drops
of his blood would fall upon them. The martyr,
supposing them to belong to a Christian, rolled them
up and placed them near his heart. "When the man
darin who presided over the execution, saw what the
subaltern had done, he ordered several blows with
the rod to be given him ; but he was soon rewarded
by receiving his linen and silk, crimsoned with the
blood of our venerable colleague.

"When the execution was over, the headsman took
the head to throw into the river which runs round
the ramparts of the city. As the hair was too short,
he carried it by the beard, but that coming off, it
rolled down into the mud. A Christian who was
following, immediately picked it up, and drying it
carefully with his clothes, wished to carry it away,
but the executioner took it from him, and getting
into a boat, pulled out into the middle of the river,
and threw in the head of the holy martyr. The
river is very wide there, and must be very deep, for
our Christians could not find the relic although
they dragged for it for several nights. It is thought,

(

176 WESTERN TONGKING.

however, that it was taken out of the river by the
pagans, who are keeping it secretly with respect, in
the hope that it will bring them good luck, or per
haps with the intention of selling it to us some day
for a large sum of money. The body of M. Schoeffler
was put by the Christians into a beautiful coffin pre
pared beforehand, and buried in the place where he
died. A guard of soldiers was set over it for the rest
of that day and the following night. On the night
of the second of May, after the guard was with
drawn, our converts disinterred the martyr's body,
and carried it away by stealth to a neighbouring
Christian village, where they buried it as honour
ably as they could, in the house of the mayor, who
is himself a Christian.

Fourth year of Tu-Duc.
First day of the third month.

Your most humble and devoted servant,
PETER ANDREW, Bishop of Acanthus,
Vic. Ap. of Western Tongking.

WESTERN TONGKING. 177

ARTICLE II.

Letter of the same Prelate about the glorious martyr
dom of M. Bonnard.

Gentlemen and dear Confrere,

Since I have been in Tongking, I have sent to
France the account of many circumstances, which
are as glorious for the faith as they are edifying to
pious souls. But to-day I begin the relation of an
event of the utmost interest to the whole Church — I
mean the martyrdom of our beloved countryman, M.
John Louis Bonnard.

lie was born at S. Cristot-en-Sarret, on the first
of May 1824, and had the happiness to be brought
up in that religious spirit, which is hereditary in his
family. I have often heard him speak of the true
piety and lively faith of his parents, and of the exam
ples of virtue and devotion, which they gave him from
his earliest infancy.

About the time that he completed his tenth year,
his vocation to the priesthood became apparent ; at
the age of twenty-two, he came to the seminary of
our society from that of Lyons, and there, after
finishing his course of theology, he was ordained
priest by Mgr. Sibour, Archbishop of Paris. Two
months later, he embarked at Nantes in the
" Archbishop Affre," and arrived here to his great
joy about Easter 1850, at the time that the cholera
morbus was spreading desolation around us.

13

178 WESTERN TONGKING.

He devoted himself eagerly to the study of the
Annamite language, as he was impatient to begin the
exercise of his sacred ministry, and so rapid was the
progress he made, that by the end of the year 1850,
he was able to hear confessions and to begin to teach
Christian doctrine in church. I kept him with me
until the end of the April of last year, in order that
he might learn our ways and become acquainted
with the members and circumstances of the mis
sion. He lived with me as a son would with his
father, and during that time I had the opportunity of
knowing and admiring the sweetness of his character,
his perfect obedience, his fervent zeal, his profound
humility, his frank and candid simplicity, his com
plete resignation and filial abandonment of himself
into the hands of Divine Providence. From what I
saw of the beauty of his soul, I am sure that it
was never disturbed by ill-regulated movements or
passions.

About the end of April, I sent him to the village of
Ke-Bang, directing him to take charge of the parish
of that name, and also of that of Ke-tring. "Was
it not a good thing to give to one native of Lyons the
inheritance left by another ? * After that time I
only saw him twice, but as he did not live very far
from my residence, we often communicated with each
other by letter. In a very short time he won the

* This district belonged for nine years to M.
Chanier, of the diocese of Lyons.

WESTERN TONGKING. 179

love of his Christians, and loved them most tenderly
himself.

After he had given the spiritual exercises in Ke-
Bang with immense fruit, he went to take charge of
the little congregation of Boi-Xuien, where there are
not more than fifteen Christian families, composing
at most one -fourth of the population. It was there
that he was arrested on the 21st of March of this
year 1852, in consequence of a denunciation made
against him to the Vice-Prefect of the neighbour
hood, by a pagan mandarin who had been deposed
from office. But let us leave M. Bonnard to relate
for himself what took place on that occasion.

" On the 21st of March, (he says in his letter to
me of the 2nd of April), towards nine o'clock in the
morning, I was baptising about five -and -twenty
children, when before the end of the ceremony, a
mandarin entered the •village with his escort, and
surprised me before any one could run and give me
notice. My own people in the wildest haste tore
from me, rather than took off, my cotta and stole,
and I went out. They wished me to cross a large
piece of water, but I saw that it was surrounded by
armed men. I found another way out, which
appeared free, and running across the lake, with the
water up to my waist, I got into a field of rice,
stumbling in my hurry at every step. My catechist,
named Kim, followed me. We did not know which
way to fly, but we thought we should be safe if we
could reach the Christian village of Doug-doi. How
ever, we were prevented from doing so by finding

180 WESTERN TONGKING.

ourselves surrounded by a large detachment of sol
diers. They seized me, and bound me so tightly,
that my hands swelled immediately from the pres
sure. I begged them to loosen the cord, but as they
refused to do so, I resigned myself to it without say
ing more.

"My catechist Kim, the only one who in the
general confusion had followed me, was arrested at the
same time. My pupil Ba, who used to serve my
mass, tried to get through the soldiers and escape,
but he also was taken. It was the goodness of God
•which put it into my head to leave the village — there
was no hiding-place prepared in it, so that if I had
remained there, I should have been taken all the
same, together with my followers and property,
and the village itself would have been completely
sacked.

" You must know that I was taken to the office of
the Sub -Prefect, all covered with mud, and with my
clothes wet through. On our way there we walked
very quickly for some time, until as my feet were
bleeding and I felt myself getting faint, I wished to
go slower, and turning to my guards, I said with a
smile, Let those of you who are pressed for time go
on before, I am not in such a hurry to get there.
They then allowed me to proceed at my own pace.
The people of every place we passed came out to
look at us. When we arrived at the office, I saw
my pupil Ba, with his hands tied, and thus I became
acquainted with his arrest.

" I learnt what had happened the same evening,

WESTERN TONGKING. 181

and immediately despatched my agent with six bars
of silver, to see if he could obtain the liberation at
least of the two young Tongkinese. He reached the
office of the Sub-Prefect the same night, but neither
he, nor the other men whom Father Thao sent
for the same purpose, were able to get into the house
of the mandarin ; the gates were all shut, and no
one would open them." The mandarin, in the excess
of his joy, spent the night in drinking and play with
the informer ; and the next morning took our
colleague and his companions in chains to the chief
city of the province, where he made them over to the
governor. But let us again leave the relation of
what happened to the principal person who was con
cerned in it.

" At the office of the Sub-Prefect I was submitted
to a preliminary examination, and I was asked the
following questions : What is your name ? How
old are you? How long have you been in the
country ? What places have you passed through ?
How did you get to Boi-Xuien ? I replied to the
three first questions in a way that satisfied my
examiners ; but I said it was of no use to put the
two last to me, for that I could not conscientiously
answer them. My catechist made the same an
swer, and they accordingly put a large collar upon
each of us. We passed the night together in a
room open to the air, in the midst of the soldiers,
who lent me a bed of straw.

" I feared nothing for myself ; but I felt great
anxiety about my young companions. I asked if it

182 WESTERN TONGKING.

would be possible to ransom them, but a mandarin
who seemed more amenable than the others, an
swered that it would not. Of necessity therefore we
gave up the idea, and placed ourselves in the hands
of God, saying together, His Will be done. The
following morning they took us to the chief place of
the province. I went in a chair carried by bearers,
wearing the cangue, but my companions were obliged
•to go on foot. During the journey I repeatedly
made the offering of my life to the Lord, reminding
myself of Jesus seized and bound in the garden of
Olives, and taken first from court to court, and
finally to death. The people came from all parts to
see the European priest. When we reached the
city, we were placed with our backs to a column in
the hall where notices are published, in the midst of
an immense crowd, who pressed round us to enjoy
the sight better. I looked in every direction to see
if I could make out any Christians among them, but
I did not recognize any, although there must have
been several.

" When we had been there about half an hour, we
were taken for ten minutes before the chief mandarin,
but he did not speak to us. We were then conducted
to the prison. I have with me my rosary, medal,
and cross, which with my collar and chains, make up
a treasure so precious, that I would not change it for
all the riches of the first monarch in the world. The
subaltern mandarins wished to take away my little
cross, but I made so firm a resistance, that I sue-

WESTERN TONGKING. 183

ceeded, with the help of a respectable man who took
my part, in retaining possession of it."

The mandarin of the sub-prefect's department,
who is a prince of royal blood, when he handed over
our confrere to the governor of the province, gave
in also a report of the circumstances of his arrest.
According to his account he took out nine battalions,
with all the ushers and secretaries of his office, on
the perilous expedition ! An army of perhaps five
hundred men, to arrest one who was unarmed and
defenceless ! I shall not take the trouble to trans
late the document, as it contains romance rather
than history.

As soon as I heard that my companion was in
the hands of the chief mandarin, I sent my agent
to the city, to try to mitigate by presents of
money the hardships of his position, and that of
his fellow-prisoners. I also sent him the following
letter, to console him. " Your arrest," I said,
" has humanly speaking given me great pain, for
it is a great sorrow to me to lose you just when
you were able to do so much for the mission. It
is well for you that I perceive that you are the
beloved one of the God of martyrs ; for otherwise I
should have been inclined to reproach you. Why
did you leave the great village of Ke-Bang, where
your labours were so extensive, to entangle yourself
in that labyrinth at Boi-Xuien ? Was not the har
vest rich enough for you, where the sheaves were
so plentiful, and so weighty, and the ears so full
of the finest corn, where the wine which produces

184 WESTERN TONGKING.

virtue flowed so abundantly from the wine-presses
of the heavenly Father of our family? Why, I
repeat, did you leave that fruitful vineyard, and that
field which the Lord was enriching with so many
blessings? But I do not mean to reproach you.
God has wished that it should be so ; you will gain
heaven by it, and He will gain glory for Himself
and for His Church. I am only sorry that I am
not with you, that I too might end my life by a
glorious martyrdom. I shonld rather say that I am
not only sorry, but jealous at seeing you set out before
me for our heavenly home, by the shortest and surest
way, while I remain here on this tempestuous sea,
without knowing when I shall get into my port, and
without even being sure that I shall reach it at all.
Ought not I, your bishop, an old soldier, who have
been fighting in this foreign land for twenty years,
without counting the three years of my first struggles
in my own country, ought not I to have the palm
before you? How dare you supplant me? But
I pardon you, because such is the will of God, who
sees in you a fruit ripe for heaven, and hastens
immediately to gather it. I, older as I am, and
more laden than you with sin, must do longer pen
ance upon earth. I pardon you also, in the firm
hope that in paradise you will be a new and zealous
protector of our mission, and that you will obtain
by your prayers, that, sooner or later, I may be
called thither too.

" Go then in peace, beloved child of Providence,
go to the enjoyment of the triumph which awaits

WESTERN TONGKING. 185

you. I am filled with wonder and admiration, at
seeing you chosen thus early to fight the battle of
the Christian hero, a battle as hard as it is illus
trious. I confess that I envy you, but it is with
an envy of love, with a jealousy of affection. It
appears certain that you will be condemned to
death ; prepare, then, to meet it as best you can.
Oh how happy you are, in that the days of your
pilgrimage on earth are so near their completion !
Soon you will go to rejoin the Bories, the Cornays,
the Schcefflers, the other apostles and martyrs of
this mission ! Oh how joyfully will they welcome
you to their glorious company !"

A few days after writing this letter I sent Father
Tinh, an old confessor of the faith, to give him the
grace of the sacraments. You can imagine what
comfort and consolation they must have given him !
On Good Friday he wrote to me : " Yesterday, as
soon as I had made my confession, I had the great
happiness of receiving the holy Communion. It is a
long time since I have felt such joy at the posses
sion of the King of Angels. One really must be in
prison, in chains, and with a collar round one's
neck, to be able to say, how sweet it is to suffer
somewhat for Him who has loved us so much. My
two young men, and two other prisoners, had the
same happiness. I have received your precious
letter, and have read it again and again, with the
greatest pleasure and profit to my soul. As for my
journey to Boi-Xuien, it was made almost in spite
of myself. I should have had to make difficulties,

186 WESTERN TONGKING.

to be excused in the eyes of the Christians, who
asked it so eagerly. I console myself with the
thought that it was the will of God: and I feel
greater joy in my lot than the most fortunate man
in the world could in the most thriving prosperity.
My cangue and chain are heavy ; but do you sup
pose that I complain of that? No ! I rather rejoice,
because I remember that the Cross of Jesus was
heavier than my cangue, and His chains more diffi
cult to bear than mine ; and I count myself happy
in being able to call myself, like S. Paul, vinctus in
CJiristo, bound in Christ, a happiness which I have
desired from infancy. Now, it seems that God has
heard me, and I bless and thank Him with my
whole soul for the gift which in spite of my un wor
thiness He is giving me.

" Nevertheless, I feel sorrow when I think of the
pain which my imprisonment must give you, and of
the evils which may follow from it. Besides, the
sufferings of my dear fellow-prisoners cut me to the
heart, and often cause me to shed tears of compas
sion for them. Father, I myself am still young, and
I could have wished to help you, and to take care of
those sweet converts whom I love so much, for a
while longer, before shedding my blood for them.
But God has not thought me worthy of it; His
Will be done. I trust myself entirely to His
goodness, and if flesh and blood are sometimes
afflicted, the agony of Jesus in the garden of Olives
restores my patience and my courage, and enables
me to bear with joy what His love puts before me.

WESTERN TONGKING. 187

I feel happy at suffering, I would even wish to suffer
more, in expiation of the many sins which I have
committed. I am almost tempted to complain of
your Lordship, for your anxiety for me, and the
affection of the Christians remove many of those
sufferings of my imprisonment which are so dear to
me. I am much touched and moved by the kind
ness which is thus shown me, nor can I ever forget
it. Continue, my Lord, to write to me as much as
you can, for your letters, and those of all our
friends, are like a soothing balm, which gives com
fort to my heart. How happy I was to work under
your paternal direction, and to live with such good
companions ! But if I go before you to heaven, I
will do all in my power to draw you after me."

At the beginning of their imprisonment, our con
fessors were much troubled by the visits which were
made to them from morning till night, but afterwards
no one was admitted. " I am quite alone," M.
Bonnard wrote to me, " and I avail myself of that
advantage to give myself to meditation on the suf
ferings of Jesus, and to prepare for death. Our life
is monotonous, we have but little to bear from the
soldiers, for they love us, and are inclined to do
what they can to please us. I am much pleased
with those who are about me ; they would not ven
ture to do anything to annoy me. I go from time
to time to see my two young men, because, as I am
not afraid of any body, it is easier for me to go to
them, than for them to come to me. Thus, when I
have finished my office, said some prayers, and made

188 WESTERN TONGKING.

some spiritual exercise, I find the time has passed
quickly. The wife of the chief mandarin came to
see me, with her son ; we had a long conversation,
and they expressed great esteem for me, and much
concern at my position."

This was the way in which our beloved prisoner
lived while his sentence was being prepared. He
was subjected, together with his companions, to the
examinations commanded by the law. These were
four in number, the particulars of which you shall
have in the words of the dear martyr himself.

" In the first examination they put to me the
!usual questions. What is your name? My Anna-
mite name is Huong, and my surname Bonnard.
They were nearly half an hour trying to pro
nounce it, and after all they did not succeed,
but put it down as Bona. How old are you?
Twenty-nine. From what country are you ? From
France. How long have you been here? Two
years. How did you come? In a French ship
to Macao, and thence to the coast of Annam in a
Chinese boat. Where did you land ? At a place
the name of which I cannot remember. Where
have you lived up to the day of your arrest ? In
many places ; I cannot remember them all ; but
if I did I should not tell you. Why did you go
to Boi-Xuien? On particular business, without
intending to stay there. What house did you lodge
at ? I cannot tell.

" They often repeated questions of the same sort,
to find out where I had been, and in what places

WESTERN TONGKING. 189

I had been taken in, threatening to beat me if I
persisted in withholding the information. Strike
me as much as you please, I answered them fear
lessly, but do not hope to get out of me a single
word that would injure the Christians. I came
here to serve them till death, and you deceive your
selves entirely, if you think to make me say any
thing against my conscience. We do not wish to
do any harm to the Christians, they replied. If that
is the case, I rejoined, why do you ask me where
I lodged ? Not being able to answer, they smiled
and said, Well, then, will you trample on the cross ?
if you do that you shall be sent back to Europe, if
not you shall be beaten and condemned to death.
I have told you already that I am not afraid either
of being beaten or of dying ; I am quite ready ; but
do not expect that I shall ever stoop to so base a
crime. I did not come here to deny my faith, or to
give a bad example to the Christians. When they
heard that they were silent.

" At the second examination, which took place the
next day, the same questions were repeated. I
replied that I had nothing to add to what I had said
the day before, as I had then told everything. The
judges seemed to be of the same opinion, but I
heard them say to each other, What more can we
ask him?

" The third time my catechist Kim was with me.
The mandarins again asked the names of the places
where I had been, and of the houses where I had
lodged. I have left all that was dear to me in

190 WESTERN TONGKING.

Europe, I answered, to bring salvation to your
countrymen, and not to injure them ; and if I, who
am a stranger, love the people of this country so
much, that I would not say anything that might,
compromise them, ought not you much more, who
are their magistrates and fathers, to avoid asking
any questions which might do them an injury? I
also said, as M. Charrier did on a similar occasion,
If I had been arrested in another province, would
you wish me to say that I had lived in this one,
and if I did so, would you be pleased with me ?*

" When my catechist was examined he began to
tell his own story, but he was interrupted at every
word, and pressed with threats, so that the poor
young man, who had received twenty blows with the
rod the day before, became frightened and was
unable to continue. As I feared much for him, I
raised my voice as in anger, and commanded the
judges to be silent. It is necessary, they said to
me, that we should do our duty. Your duty ! I
replied ; I know it as well as you do, and I know
that those questions are not necessary. Then
lowering my voice, I reminded them of the effect
which their conduct would have upon the people,
adding, If you. want to save him from great wrong,
and yourselves from a great deal of annoyance, draw
up your report to the king like wise and prudent

* The mandarins and the mayors of the villages are
obliged, under penalty, to give reasons for every
arrest that may take place in their district, because it
presupposes a want of due vigilance on their part.

WESTERN TONGKING. 191

men. Do you not see that if you beat these young
men you will expose them to the danger of telling
lies, to the ruin of many innocent persons? The
mandarins listened to me with great attention, and
praised the way in which I spoke their language,
saying to each other, He must have been here a long
time. Then turning to the youth they ended by
saying, Consult with the Father, and give us your
answers, that we may bring the whole affair to a
conclusion. The sitting being thus ended, I made
my catechist write down his whole story, so that he
might always have before him materials for safe and
accurate replies.

" The fourth examination was only a repetition of
the former ones. The judges made me write a few-
lines in French to send to the king. They contained
merely a short declaration of my name, age, country,
and profession. In the course of all these examina
tions I have had full proof of the efficacy of the
words of Jesus Christ to His disciples, Take no
thought how you shall answer the princes of this
world: the Holy Ghost shall answer by your mouth.
In truth, I have experienced no difficulty and felt no
fear, and I have spoken Annamite more easily and
readily than I was ever able to do before.

" I have taken great pains to encourage my two
young men, and to support them as well as I could
under all circumstances. Both the one and the
other are full of joy at their sufferings, and inflamed
with the desire of dying martyrs. I have a very-
special affection for them ; I have done all I can to

192 WESTERN TONGKING.

lighten their punishment, and I divide with them in
a brotherly way every little gift which I receive
from the charity of the Christians. They were sum
moned to three special examinations'; at the first
they each received twenty blows with the rod, be
cause they refused to give the names of the villages
where I had lodged. My catechist Kim drew a
cross before him while he was being beaten, in order
that the sight of it might remind him of the suffer
ings of Jesus Christ. At the second examination he
got for persisting in his refusal five more blows,
which he told me hurt him more than the previous
five and twenty. This dear child, when under the
rod, invoked aloud the most holy names of Jesus
and Mary, and their sweetness, ever consoling in
sorrow, strengthened the firmness of his resolution.
In the course of the third examination the manda
rins put before the two confessors a broken statue,
which they said was a Christ which had been taken
from the Dominicans. It was about as big as a
child of twelve years old, and had lost the arms and
half of the head. The judges wished them to kiss
it, but as they did not know whether it was an
image of Christ or an idol, they refused, and as it
was being taken away two or three rats ran out of
its body, in the sight of the whole court.

" The fervour of these two youths edifies me very
much: they have courageously confessed the faith.
The mandarins, out of compassion, wished to say in
their report that they had trampled on the cross,
but they contradicted it, and insisted on the insertion

WESTERN TONGKING. 193

of their formal declaration, that they repudiated all
apostasy, and asked to be put to death. This touch
ing generosity rejoiced me greatly.

" My catechist Earn has had put into the report
to the king that his business was to accompany me
wherever the administration of the sacraments re
quired my presence. I fear lest this dear child
should not have strength to bear the burden which
his zealous fervour has imposed upon him. I once
reproved him, and said that he had taken too much
upon himself, but he answered with a smile, How
happy I should be to shed my blood with you for
Jesus Christ ! I had always loved him for his zeal
and gentleness, but the beauty of his soul, which his
imprisonment has brought out, has made him more
than doubly dear. He seems an angel rather than
a man ; so think all those who are about us, for no
one who sees his generous and cheerful disposition
can help loving him.

" My disciple Ba is more silent. The day on
which we were to make our declarations we were
advised to pretend that we had a fever, to save our
selves from being beaten. This dear boy determined
to take the advice, and came to the court all
trembling, and as if hardly able to drag his legs
after him. He sat down quite fatigued and pale,
as if he felt very ill. They hastened to make him.
sign his declaration, and sent him back again. Pray
to Jesus and Mary that they may give these two
combatants strength to endure whatever sufferings
Providence has still in store for them. I recoru-
13

194 WESTERN TONGKING.

mend them, and also myself, to your prayers with
all my heart.''

You see, my dear friend, that the mandarins show
some kindness to their poor prisoners ; thanks per
haps to the seasonable sum of money which we have
distributed among them. When the examinations
were over, the chief mandarin sent in his report to
the king: the following extracts contain the most
important particulars of it.

" Having examined these three prisoners in full
court, I found that one of them, a priest of the reli
gion of Jesus, was undoubtedly a European. His
nose is long, his beard thick, his hair short, his eyes
yellow, and his complexion of a pale white. He
savs that his name is 13ona, and that he is a French
man, of the age of twenty-nine. With a passport
from a great mandarin of his own country, he came
to Macao in a French ship about two years ago. A
month later he again embarked in a Chinese ship
for this kingdom, intending to go through the pro
vinces, and preach in them the law of his God. On
reaching the Annamite coast he found a fishing-boat,
in which were two men, who secretly made the sign
of the cross. By this he knew that they were
Christians, and went with them; they landed him
under cover of the night, and took him from one

place to another along the shore He is not

acquainted with the Chinese alphabet, and introduces
into his conversation many European words, without
explaining their meaning ; in short, he is altogether
a diiferent sort of being from ourselves. He has

WESTERN TONGKING. 195

always refused to say where he landed, what places
he has visited, in what houses he received shelter,
and who were seduced and deceived by him. We
examined him on these points two or three times,
but were never able to extract any sort of confession
from him. He was firm as a rock, and all our
power was of no avail. No further examination is
necessary : he is a European barbarian, a great
criminal ; let him be condemned to death. ''

After this the mandarin goes on to speak of the
two young companions of our beloved confrere,
exaggerating their story, and concluding as follows: —
" They have always refused to tell us the places
through which the prisoner Bona passed, the villages
which received him, or the houses in which he was
concealed ; one might as well try to open mouths of
iron. They have also refused to trample on the
cross, and demand to be put to death. We shall,
however, examine their case further, and when we
have determined on their sentence we shall submit it
to His Majesty."

The chief mandarin sent this report to the king on
the fifth of April, and on the twentieth the answer
returned, entirely confirming the sentence of death
against M. Bonnard. But before I speak of its
being carried into effect I must give you an idea of
the position in which this event placed us.

When M. Bonnard was arrested our community
at Vinh-tri consisted of three Europeans, M. Le-
grand, who helps me to write and to read my letters,
which I find difficult on account of the weakness of

196 WESTERN TONGKING.

mj sight, M. Charbonier, lately returned from Lac-
to, where fever had attacked him while in the exer
cise of his ministry, and myself. You know that
Vinh-tri is considered here as it were the nest of the
Europeans, and the head- quarters of apostolic works.
It is not far from the chief town of the province,
where M. Bonnard was imprisoned. We were in
great fear both for ourselves and our community,
which a decree of the chief mandarin, published
in every part of the province, greatly contributed
to increase. Twice we took to flight in conse
quence of false alarms. On Easter day we said
mass an hour after midnight, and took refuge on
board some boats for the rest of the day. The storm
threatened to break over us, and we all held our
selves in readiness.

After our venerable prisoner received sentence his
condition changed for the better: his two disciples
were brought back to his prison: he received the
Breviary and the Imitation of Jesus Christ, which
we sent him : the Christians were able to see and
converse with him without much difficulty, and he
was allowed to write several letters, and to receive
almost all that we sent. He certainly did not need
any exhortations of ours to run his noble and glori
ous course courageously to the end ; his fervent piety
and lively faith, together with the help of the grace
which dwelt within him, were more than sufficient to
conduct him safely through the struggle. Never
theless, the mutual encouragement and the farewells
which we sent him, were exceedingly grateful to

WESTERN TONGKING. 197

him, and we felt great consolation in being able to
pour into his soul the soothing balm of our affection.
But his greatest satisfaction in his imprisonment was
to be able to makfe his confession four times, and to
receive the most holy Eucharist six times, the last of
which was the Viaticum, given him about two hours
before the execution of his sentence. Thus the
adorable Body and Blood of Jesus Christ were the
last food that he took on earth.

The month of April was drawing near its close,
and the royal decree could not be delayed much
longer, when the beloved prisoner wrote me a long
letter, recommending several persons to me, and
especially his parents, to whom he begged me to
send something belonging to him, which I shall take
care to do as soon as possible. He showed great
anxiety for his companions. " Their fervour," he
exclaimed, " gives me great edification ; but I think
a great deal of what their future will be. Who will
support them when I am with them no more?
They understand this themselves, and say to me,
We should be lucky if we could suffer with you ;
what will become of us when you leave us, unless
we follow you directly ? I console them by saying
that you will take care to support them. I beg
therefore that you will do what you can to make
their position easier, as far as is in your power."

" As this is perhaps the last time that I shall write
to you, allow me, my dear Lord and good Father,
to throw myself at your feet to ask your benediction.
If I have ever given offence to your Lordship, or to

198 WESTERN TONGKING.

any of my colleagues, during the time that I have
served the Mission, I beseech you to pardon me,
and be sure that I shall never forget you." This
was written on the 22nd of April, and on the 25th
and 27th I sent to him letters to the folio win or

O

effect : —

" Be very sure, my dearest friend, that all your
wishes and charges shall be scrupulously fulfilled. I
will take especial care of your beloved companions
in captivity, and of every one else whom you love.
You ask my pardon, and I hardly know how to
grant it, for you have never offended me in any
thing. You know how I have always loved you,
and now I love you more than ever. As for my
blessing, I gave it you when you first came to the
Mission, and it has remained with you hitherto, and
will be your support until you come to eternity.
Yes, I gave you my blessing when I gave you the
beautiful name of Co-huong, that is, father of home,
father of incense, father of perfume, for Imong means
all these things. Now the time is at hand when
your adorable home will display to you the fulness
of its splendour ; the time is at hand when you will
burn on the altar of martyrdom like precious in
cense, the sweet smoke of which ascends unto the
throne of God ; the time is at hand when this won
derful perfume will be acceptable to Jesus, like that
of Mary Magdalen, and will gladden angels and
men and heaven and earth, with its incomparable
sweetness. It is long since I first gave you my bless
ing, and now I renew it to you. May the power of

WESTERN TONGKING. 199

God the Father sustain you in the heroic battle-field,
in which you are about to engage ; may the merits of
God the Son console you on the Calvary which you
are about to ascend ; may the love of God the Holy
Ghost inflame you in the upper room of your prison,
which you are preparing to leave only to gather the
martyr's palm. Yes, may you be blessed, my
beloved one, and when you are in heaven bless us in
return ; bless this Mission and these our Christians,
who regard you with such tender love. Be our
advocate and protector all the time that we remain
in this miserable world, and pray God that we may
soon be your companions in Paradise. Farewell,
my dearest friend, time presses, and we must part :
we shall meet in heaven ; farewell, farewell."

These were the last words which I was able to
send to our martyr. I will add those which were
the last that I received from him.

" My Lord, and most dear friends,
" This is the last letter that I shall write to you.
The solemn hour has struck. Farewell. I make
appointments with all of you, who remember and
love me, to meet me in heaven. I hope in the
mercy of Jesus, and I have a firm confidence that
He has pardoned my innumerable sins. I offer with
all my heart my blood and my life for the love of my
dear Master, and for those beloved souls whom I would
have served so willingly to the best of my power ;
and I very willingly pardon every one, whose con-

200 WESTERN TONGKING.

science tells him that he has committed any fault
against me.

" Do not be too ready to suppose that I have no
further need of your prayers ; such an opinion might
do me great harm ; but continue, I beseech you, to
remember me before the Lord : be sure that, as I
have told you before, if He has mercy on my soul,
and if I can do anything in His sight, I will not
forget you for ever.

" Tomorrow, Saturday, the Feast of St. Philip and
St. James, the first of May, is the anniversary of the
entrance of M. Schceffler into hoaven, and I believe
it is the day appointed for my own sacrifice. God's
will be done. Blessed be God, I die happy. I bid
farewell to all in the sacred Hearts of Jesus and
Mary. In manus tuas, Domine, commendo spiritum
meum. In corde Jesu et Marice osculor vos, amid
mei.

" Vinctus in CJiristo, the vigil of my death, April
30th, 1852."

On the same day the confirmation of his sentence
of death arrived from the capital, at six in the
morning, before the chief mandarin was up. A
Christian in his employment stole a sight of it, and
immediately gave notice of it to his friends. The
report that our venerable brother was to be beheaded
that evening spread rapidly, and the converts col
lected from all parts to witness the solemn and
moving spectacle. After mid-day the streets were
all crowded, and the gate by which the procession
was to leave the city was literally besieged by people.

WESTERN TONGKING. 201

For this reason the execution was deferred until the
next day, which was the first of the beautiful Month
of Mary. But the crowd, instead of dispersing,
increased beyond measure, and went out with the
first break of dawn to the usual place of execution,
where the mandarins had prepared betimes all that
was necessary. When there it was discovered that
the missionary was being conducted in the opposite
direction. The whole crowd immediately hurried
after him, but the distance was too great to allow of
its arriving in time, and it was also kept back by
soldiers. Thus only a few hundred Christians
assisted at the martyrdom of our beloved colleague.
The place which was chosen for his death was near
the river, about a league and a half out of the city.
He walked the whole way, bearing his cangue and
chain, which latter he carried in his hand, proceed
ing with heroic courage, with consolation which was
more than human written on his countenance. When
he arrived at tho place of execution, his hands were
tied behind him so tightly that the blood flowed.
The mandarins had forgotten to bring with them any
tools to cut the cangue and break the chains, and an
hour passed before they were brought, durino- which

•L J O ' O

time the martyr remained kneeling, firm and upright
as a column. Just before leaving his prison he had
received the Bread of the strong, and he prayed fer
vently, gazing towards heaven. How beautiful he
must have been at that moment ! When shall I
ever be like him ? Precious in the sight of the Lord

202 WESTERN TONGKING.

is the death of His saints ! May in j last end be
like his !

When his cangue and chain were removed, . the
mandarin who presided over the tragedy, dis
mounted from his elephant, and began to arrange
the martyr's hair, saying to him something which
was not understood by others. M. Bonnard turned
and made some answer, but it was not heard by
any one else. The mandarin then remounted his
elephant, the cymbal was heard three times, and
the head of our dear friend fell beneath the first
blow of the executioner. The Christians were able
to collect very little of his blood, as the soldiers
beat off with rods all who ventured to approach.
The pagan soldiers took off the new dress in which
M. Bonnard had gone to execution, and kept it
entire ; but they divided among themselves his
under clothing, which was coloured with his blood,
intending to sell the pieces to the faithful. They
also took off three links of his chain, and the iron
pegs of his cangue, and many dipped pieces of paper
in his blood. They are now selling these things,
and also the martyr's hair and beard, which they
cut off.

The mandarins ordered out for this execution a
great display of elephants, horses, and soldiers. It
is said that there were about five hundred men,
armed with muskets, pikes, and scimitars, without
reckoning a quantity of mandarins, with their large
yellow, green, and blue umbrellas.

But what did they do with the body? "We

WESTERN TONGKTNG. 203

expected that it would be buried at the place of
execution, as that of M. Schceffler was, and that
only the head would be thrown into the river. "We
made preparations for obtaining possession of the
relics, but our measures were of no avail. As soon
as the victim fell, the mandarins had all the earth
which was soaked with his blood dug up, that the
Christians might not get any of it, and the body
and head were put into a large boat, with a strong
detachment of soldiers. The chief mandarin, with
several of his armed followers, went on board
another boat. They were both provisioned for three
days, and Avhen they had set sail, and got the oars
out, they went down the river, as if on a long and
important expedition.

But a launch, full of Christians, among whom
were my deacon, and two of our catechists, went
before them at a little distance, to watch their
movements, and towards evening we despatched in
the direction of the sea several fishing boats, which
were moored in the neighbourhood of our commu
nity. At a little before nine the sky was overcast
with clouds, and it began to rain. The boats of
the mandarins had got a little below Tam-Toa ;
there they stopped, and after doing something which
could not be seen, but which was perfectly under
stood, they again set sail, and began to ascend the
river on their return. The Christians in the launch
marked the place, and the fishing-boats came up
and joined them. A young man plunged in, at a
depth of five and twenty feet, and came exactly

204 WESTERN TONGKING.

upon the body of the holy martyr. He touched its
hands and feet, and immediately rose to the surface,
exclaiming triumphantly, I have found it.

The mandarins had fastened the body of Bonnard
to an enormous stone, such as is used to pound rice,
and had tied up the head in a small bag, and put it
under the arm. Very soon after the precious trea
sure was discovered, it was raised from the bottom,
and one hour after midnight the fishermen arrived
with their pious burden at the door of our commu
nity. We immediately dressed it in all the priestly
vestments, and laid it, with its face uncovered, in a
very beautiful coffin, presented by a Christian family.
It remained thus exposed, with lighted torches round
it, in the middle of the church of our college, until
the evening of the following day, when we buried it
with all the ceremonies of the Kitual. I was the
celebrant, assisted by M. Legrand, by two Anna-
mite priests, by a deacon, and by all our disciples ;
we also admitted some of the principal converts of
the village to the funeral, which we performed almost
in a whisper.

The whole body now lies in our college. How
beautiful it was as it lay on the bier, dressed in the
sacerdotal vestments ! You would have said it was
a magnificent statue of ivory. The head was care
fully fitted to the neck, and it seemed as if sleeping
in holy peace, or rather enjoying a heavenly vision,
from which it caught a sweet smile.

Before his execution, Bonnard wrote a letter to

WESTERN TONGKING. 205

his relations, which he sent to me open, begging me
not to forward it until his martyrdom had taken
place. I shall here transcribe some passages of
it, which will give great edification to pious
souls.

"My dear relations... Everything concerning me
has now undergone a great change... But be tranquil,
for if God chastises us with one hand, He consoles
us with the other : and if He is with us, all hell will
be unchained against us in vain. When you receive
this letter, you may be sure that my head has fallen
beneath the sword of the executioner ; for it will not
be sent until after my martyrdom. I die for the
faith of Jesus Christ ; the wicked slay me out of
hatred to that most holy religion, in which you gave
me lessons, which were so wise and so easy to fol
low, and which I came to these distant countries to
spread ; out of hatred to that religion, in confirma
tion of which so many apostles and martyrs have
shed their blood. I shall be a martyr. Yes, my dear
parents, I shall be sacrificed as Jesus was on Cal
vary. I hope to ascend to Him, to dwell in the
home of the saints. Rejoice, therefore, my dear
father, my tender mother, my beloved brothers,
because my soul will have entered the kingdom of
the elect. If I can do anything at the foot of the
throne of the Divine Majesty, I will surely remember
all of you, who have loved me so much, and done
so much for me. Weep not for me, for I am happy
in my cangue and my chains and my death. Prom

206 WESTERN TONGKING.

my youth up I have desired this happy lot ; and
now that the Lord has heard me, I embrace Him
>vith reverence, and my heart beats with joy at
seeing myself honoured with so great a distinc
tion.

" What can I say more, my dear parents ? I
wish to console you, I wish to dry your tears, I wish
to pour into your hearts for the last time in this
world all the affection of my own. But what
greater comfort can I give you than that of our most
holy religion ? If the reading of this letter moves
your tender compassion, remember that those suffer
ings, which I count myself happy to bear for the
love of Jesus Christ, will have been long over, and
that my soul will be already reigning in our heavenly

home Do all you can to save your souls by

despising the fleeting goods of this world, and turn
ing your frequent gaze towards those of heaven.
Up there, in that glorious country, I appoint to
meet you. There I expect you all; oh see that you

fail not! The hour strikes ; I can say no more

Your Bonnard."

All is now over with our beloved colleague. It is
•with martyrdom as with the woman in labour, of
whom our Lord speaks : her sufferings at first are very
great, but when she has brought her burthen into the
world, she is full of joy. In like manner, we were
filled with sadness and anxiety all the time that pur
friend was in prison ; but when, thanks to Divine
Providence, everything was brought to so glorious

WESTERN TONGKING. 207

and edifying a conclusion, our souls seemed to be
relieved of a heavy burden, and we were full of con
solation and joy. We are proud of belonging to a
mission which thus brings forth new martyrs to the
Church, and we consider ourselves fortunate in being
in a country, where we have good reason to hope
that we too shall gain the crown of Christian
heroism.

You will ask what became of those two dear sons
of M. Bonnard, his catechist Kim, and his disciple
Ba. Nothing is yet settled. They remain in their
prison, which has become to them a house of sad
ness. It is considered certain that they will not be
put to death ; so I hope that these noble converts
will sooner or later be restored to us.

The Christians of your old parish of Ke-Bang
have shown the love they bear to their holy mis
sionary M. Bonnard, by making a collection among
themselves, of their own accord, which produced
six hundred pieces, to assist in paying the legal
expenses of the trial ; an act of charity which is the
more praiseworthy, as this is a time of great scarcity.
I shall send a box of property belonging to M. Bon
nard to his relations and friends by the first oppor
tunity. I cannot send it now because it would take
time to collect, and the ship which is to take this is
on the point of setting sail. Not to lose this post, I
began this narrative on Sunday, the second of this
month, and I have finished it today, the fifth. M.
Libois will send it by the Red Sea, that it may

208 WESTERN TONGKING.

reach you sooner. Present my humble respects to
the Rev. the Superior and the Directors of our semi
nary. Pray much for our dear mission, for all our
brethren, and especially for

Your most humble and devoted servant,
PETER, Bishop of Acanthus,
Vicar Apostolic of Western Toogking.

Tongking, May 5, 1852.

209

CHAPTER IV.

COCHIN CHINA.

SECTION I.

An account of the martyrdom of Philip Minh, a
priest, written by the Bishop of Isauropolis.

Philip Minh was born in the Christian settlement
of Cai-mong, situated in the province of Vinh-Long,
in Western Cochin China, about the year of our
Lord 1815. Cai-mong was one of the largest
Christian settlements in those parts, and Philip's
parents were good Christians, who were remarkable
for their attachment to the faith. They died how
ever, when he was but a few years old, and he was
placed under the care of his elder sister, who brought
him up and fostered his inclination to piety. Philip
had just reached his thirteenth year when he fortu
nately made the acquaintance of Mgr. Taberd, Bishop
of Isauropolis, and Vicar Apostolic of Cochin China,
who seeing the good dispositions of the youth, and
his more than ordinary talents, sent him to be one of
the students of his seminary. The Bishop's affec
tion for Philip increased with time and with his
knowledge of him, and when he found himself obliged
to fly in consequence of the increasing violence of the
14

210 COCHIN CHINA.

persecution, he took the youth with him to Calcutta.
It is said that Philip assisted Mgr. Taberd in the
compilation of his Latin and Annamite dictionary.

Some years afterwards the Bishop of Tsauropolis
died in Calcutta, and the Fathers of the Society of
Jesus in that town kindly offered Philip hospi
tality.

As soon as a favourable opportunity presented
itself, he was sent by the fathers to the college of the
foreign missions in the island of Pulo Penang.

At the college he applied himself in the first place
to the study of Latin and the classics, and afterwards
to that of theology. He obtained praise from his
masters, and by his sweet disposition won the
love and respect of his companions, who admired his
talents. The superiors of the college placed such
confidence in him that they made him procurator of
the house. He filled this office for the last two
years that he was at the college previous to his
return to his birth-place. At that time the Bishop
of Metellopolis was the vicar of Cochin China, and
it was from him that Philip received his ecclesiastical
training and the different steps of holy orders one
after the other. Just when the bishop was going to
ordain him priest, the Holy See divided the mission
of Cochin China into eastern and western Cochin
China.

Mgr. Dominic Lefebure was appointed bishop of
the western division, and he had been taken prisoner
by the king's officers, and conducted to the palace of
Hue, where he was under guard. The deacon Minh,

COCHIN CHINA. 211

who was born in western Cochin China, was conse
quently his subject. He boldly faced the danger,
and penetrated to the very place where the bishop
was incarcerated ; and presenting himself to him,
obtained dimissorial letters according to his wish.
Having thus paid him homage as his superior, he
returned unharmed to the Bishop of Metellopolis, by
whom he was ordained priest in the year 1847, the
thirty-first of his age.

After his ordination he returned to the western
vicariate, where he performed all the duties of the
priesthood with edification, and distinguished himself
not only by his talents, but also by his zeal. He
received faculties to administer the sacrament of
confirmation, an office which exposed him to greater
danger of being seized by his persecutors than the
other priests, because it obliged him to travel fre
quently from one Christian congregation to another.
He performed these sacred duties in various Chris
tian settlements for about the space of seven years,
until he was appointed to the cure of Mac-bac, where
he happened to be on the 25th of February 1853.

Meanwhile a wicked and treacherous Christian had
promised the mandarin to betray into his hands a
priest of the name of Luu, who, as the man thought,
was living in the same house with the venerable
Philip, perhaps because the master of the house was
in fact called Luu, and although not a priest, was
nevertheless the chief catechist amongst the Chris
tians of that part. The traitor had taken with him
a band of officers provided with arms and torches,

212 COCHIN CHINA.

and at about ten o'clock on the night of the 25th of
February 1853, with sudden shouts and tumult
they attacked the house where our priest Minh was
lodging. The servant of God had finished his
evening prayer, and the subject of the next morn
ing's meditation having been read by one of the stu
dents, he was preparing his mat to lie down to sleep.
Suddenly they heard the shouts of their wicked ene
mies, and the household was terrified, thinking at
first by a natural mistake that they were robbers.
If they had been robbers they would not have been
worse; for they knocked down the walls, and
having forced an entrance, entered the house,
crying out that they had been sent to seize
Luu, the teacher of religion. The master of the
house hearing this, came forward, and said, " Here I
am ; I am he." The officers understood that he was
not the person they were in search of, but nevertheless
they made him prisoner, and again cried out, "Where
is Luu the teacher of religion?" and whilst they
were saying this they seized every one who came
before them. The servant of God seeing what was
being done, and anxious to give himself up for the
safety of his brethren, immediately came forward,
and thus addressed the officers, " If you are look
ing for the teacher of religion, here he is ; I am he—
you have nothing to do with the people of the
house." Hearing this they immediately seized him,
and tied his hands behind his back, not with ropes,
but with his own hair, dividing it into two parts and
drawing it over to his back. Some of the officers

COCHIN CHINA. 213

said that they ought not to seize Philip, because he
was not the Luu whom they had been sent to seize ;
but the servant of God cared less for himself than
they did, and reckoned not his own life provided he
could save that of others, and in fact, by giving
money to that greedy crowd, he succeeded in freeing
several from their hands. Nevertheless, according
to the usual practice in such cases, the house was
sacked, and only the sacred furniture and pictures
were reserved to serve as evidence at the trial.
Seven of the chief inhabitants of the village, who
were also the leaders amongst the Christians, were
then seized, and Philip was dragged along with them
to the prefecture of Long-ho. He had to appear
before the tribunal during seven days, and to answer
delicate and difficult questions ; but he endeavoured by
means of the greatest circumspection not to compro
mise any one. When he was asked who he was,
where he came from, where he had studied, and how
he had obtained the sacred vestments, he frankly
replied by telling them the place of his birth and the
misfortunes and events of his childhood. He told
them that he had accompanied Mgr. Taberd to
Calcutta, and that when he returned to his own
country he had been the disciple of the Bishop
Dominic (Mgr. Lefebure) in the Christian religion.
He made known to them that he had visited the
bishop in prison, and that he had received power
from him to teach the Christian religion, as well as
the sacred ornaments. The venerable servant of God
was able to say thus much without danger, because

214 COCHIN CHINA.

Mgr. Taberd had been dead a long time, and the
Bishop of Isauropolis was thought to have returned to
Europe to remain there. But the mandarin took
notice of the name, and inquired whether the Bishop
Dominic was still in the kingdom. " Pie does not
travel any more," Philip answered, " I have not
seen him for a long time." It was true that Minh
had not seen the Bishop for a long time, and it was
then seven years since he had made his last journey.
Besides he did not intend to cross the sea again,
but ruled the vicariate apostolic while remaining in
his own district.

After these questions had been asked, together with
others of more or less importance, they came at last
to the daring endeavour of making him apostatise.
It is difficult to describe the struggle that ensued,
and we willingly leave this to be narrated by the pen
of the servant of God himself, in a letter which
he addressed to his superiors. " When the exami
nation, which lasted seven days, was concluded," he
writes, " the president ordered me to trample on the
cross W7hich was lying on the ground before me.
Hearing this command, I prayed thus to God with
my whole heart : O God, who hast been pleased to
appoint all that is now happening to Thy most
humble servant, assist me to endure everything
rather than that I should offend against the faith.
Have mercy on me, O Lord ! I felt the grace of
God strengthening me in very truth, for I answered
immediately, and without fear, Great mandarin, I
cannot possibly dare to do this. Why not, rejoined

COCIILS CHINA. 215

the president. Pardon me, great mandarin, I replied,
our religion commands us to venerate this holy sign,
and I have done so from my youth, how then could
I dare to trample on it ? When the president heard
this he cried out, Drag him on; upon which the
officers, pulling me by the cangue, were dragging
me to the cross, but I resisted them by keeping my
feet firmly planted on the ground ; thereupon they
lifted me up on both sides by the cangue, and held
me suspended as it were on a cross, but in vain, for
your child, (he is speaking of himself to his superior),
bending his knees, did not so much as touch the cross
with his feet. At last, the president, thinking it
useless, gave orders that they should desist from
offering me any further violence. The other seven
prisoners were subjected to the same trial, but
being strengthened by the example of the priest they
also were victorious."

The mandarin being anxious to send Philip away
free, endeavoured to persuade him that if he would
not tread on the cross, he should at least deny that
he was a priest, and that he should depose that the
vestments had been given him to keep by the Bishop
Dominic at the time he was seized. " If you make
this declaration," they said to him, " you will have
nothing to fear, and we will send you away
unharmed." The servant of God replied that he
could not say this without prevarication, since he was
really a priest, and the sacerdotal vestments were
those which he used every day in the sacred func
tions. The mandarin thought that this was folly, and

216 COCHIN CHINA.

rebuked him because he would not come to any
agreement ; they then set about drawing up the sen
tence.

According to the edict which had been published
in the beginning of the reign of Tu-Duc, the priests
of the country could only be condemned to perpetual
banishment in addition to the iron chain. The
judges confined themselves to this law, and drew up
the following sentence.

"Philip Minn, thirty-eight years of age, and
teacher of a false religion, having dared to go to
Europe* to study, having been the disciple of the
Bishops Taberd and Dominic; — having visited the
Bishop Dominic during his imprisonment, and
received from him authority to be a teacher of
religion ; having continued to pervert the people by
preaching the false religion in this province, and
recently in the village of Mac-bac, where he built a
church; having refused to obey our command to for
sake his impious superstitions, and to trample on the
cross, is declared by us to be a rebel against the laws
of the kingdom, and guilty of the gravest crime. We
therefore sentence him to exile in the province of
Son-Tay, in accordance with the royal edict published
for similar cases. As for his seven accomplices, they
are to receive a hundred blows of the stick, and then
to be released."

When this sentence had been drawn up, it was

* This name was given to Calcutta, a European
settlement.

COCHIN CHINA. 217

sent, according to the custom of the country, after
about three months, to the capital of the king
dom for the king's confirmation. From the day on
which the sentence was despatched, the mandarins
treated Philip with great consideration ; they allowed
him to change the cangue with which he was laden
for a light chain ; they gave him permission to stay in
a part of the prison distinct from the criminals, and
he was even allowed to leave the prison to walk into
the town with a soldier to guard him. Minh's first
thought was to send a messenger to Mgr. Lefebure,
the vicar apostolic, to ask for a rosary and a little
office of the Blessed Virgin, in order to devote him
self to prayer with greater facility. The Bishop sent
him these things, as well as pens and paper, which
enabled Minh to have the consolation of writing often
to his superiors, which was no slight comfort to
him.

The priest Luu, instead of whom the servant of
God had been captured, often visited him and heard
his confession. Oftentimes Minh himself, in the
prison, was able to hear the confessions of his fellow
prisoners, and so to make them partakers of the indul
gence of the jubilee. A great number of Christians
crowded round him every day ; they came from all
parts to pay their respects to him, and to make him
presents, which he distributed for the support of
those who were in prison with him. He also used
to address his fellow prisoners, as they them
selves testified, exhorting them to suffer with
patience. One day amongst others, he thus spoke

218 COCHIN CHINA.

to them : " Friends, let us endure with resignation
these sufferings for the sake of God's holy religion — •
beware of complaining. What is there to be feared?
You will have to undergo a hundred blows, and
then being set at liberty, you will be able to return
to your families. I will leave nothing untried that
you may escape even this punishment. I, for my part,
shall be condemned to exile, and I shall have to go
into a distant country, all which I shall willingly
endure for God's sake. If anything ought to be a
source of sadness, it should be this, that since I
am your shepherd, you that are my sheep will
no longer be able to have the ministry of your
pastor."

Eight days before the execution of his sentence, he
thus wrote to the Bishop Lefebure : " I beg of
you, my father, to pray for your son, that he may
suffer willingly whatever God has appointed that he
should suffer. To whatever locality I am destined
to be sent I will go willingly ; let but my father
pray God that He would vouchsafe to help his son,
and everything will be welcome to him." These
sentiments of the servant of God are sufficient to
prove that he did not anticipate any worse sentence
than exile, and it was generally believed that the
king would have confirmed the sentence of the tribu
nal. But the tyrant had determined to exterminate
our religion utterly, and had accordingly issued a most
cruel edict, which however had not as yet been
promulgated, owing to the disturbed state of the
kingdom. This law decreed that the native priests

COCHIN CHINA. 219

shoulJ be treated in the same manner as the Euro
pean missionaries, that is to say, that they should be
beheaded, and their heads thrown into the sea.
This was the sentence passed on Philip ; he was con
demned to death, and his seven companions to per
petual banishment.

This royal sentence reached the prefecture of
Long-ho early in the morning, on Sunday, the 3rd
of July, the feast of the Most Precious Blood of our
Lord Jesus Christ.

It often happens in that kingdom that no time is
allowed to elapse before executing a capital sentence.
For this reason orders had been given in the
morning, and the soldiers were already preparing
their spears and the ropes to bind the victim.
The officer who was to preside at the execu
tion had also ordered one of the Christians
who was imprisoned to have a sponge ready to
gather up the blood of the teacher of religion who
was to be decapitated. All these preparations were
going on whilst Philip, ignorant of it all, was calmly
thinking about going to the destination of his banish
ment.

At length he received intelligence of his approach
ing death. When he had heard it he immediately
asked if it was possible to obtain a delay of a few
days, and hearing that this was quite impossible he
smiled, and taking up his pen wrote a last fare
well to Mgr. Lefebure, and to two other priests
who were nearer, begging earnestly of one of them
to come at once, if he possibly could, to the prefec-

220 COCHIN CHINA.

ture, in order to give him at least a last sacramental
absolution. The letter however did not reach in
time. The servant of God, when he had finished
writing, prayed for some time on his knees, making
an offering of the sacrifice of his life to God. He
then rose and committed his last wishes to the care
of the catechist Luu. Hearing the noise of the
soldiers who were approaching, and knowing well
that the last hour of his life was come, he turned to
his companions in prison and spoke to them pretty
nearly as follows. " You see, my friends, that God
has appointed that I should offer Him my life for the
glory of His holy name, and therefore I must cheer
fully fulfil His holy will. Before leaving you I be
seech you, my friends, with all my heart, to remain
firm in the faith in spite of whatever you may have to
suffer, and to place all your confidence in the divine
assistance, which is certain never to fail you." He
then addressed a special exhortation to one amongst
them, for whose perseverance there was reason to
fear, and whilst all were weeping bitterly the soldiers
arrived. They seized him by the wrists and dragged
him out, and then tied his hands and his arms so tightly
behind his back that his chest was unnaturally thrust
forward. The other prisoners seeing this entreated
the soldiers to use their master more gently, as there
-was no fear of his escaping. The soldiers being per
suaded of this, tied him less tightly by his arms
only. When this was done Philip was led into the
presence of the chief mandarin, who ordered that the
sentence should be placed before him that he might

COCHIN CHINA. 221

see it. " It is unnecessary," said Philip, " whatever
may be written there I am ready to endure all."
The sentence ran thus : " Minh, a teacher of a false
religion, is to be decapitated, and his head thrown
into the river; let this serve as an example to
others."

At length the harsh trumpet was heard, and the
escort came forward. Soldiers armed with spears
placed themselves on either side, and the servant of
God was in the midst, bound and led like a lamb
going to the slaughter ; three inferior officers closed
the procession. The herald who carried the sentence
said not a word, but seemed as if ashamed to make
known the cause of this punishment.

There was a crowd of heathens following on all
sides, who were questioning each other and complain
ing that so innocent and distinguished a man should
be led to execution in that manner. They won
dered above all that this priest, who was to suffer an
unjust death in a few moments, should be so meek,
for Philip, as he was going along, was seen entirely
recollected in prayer, holding a rosary of our Blessed
Lady in his hand, and raising his eyes to heaven
from time to time, and bending his head. When
they had crossed the river the presiding mandarin
made the soldiers halt, to allow Philip time to rest,
as he had now marched more than a league, bound
as he was. Hereupon a Christian, called Xa-pluiong,
laid a mat on the ground, and Philip knelt upon it ;
then leaning back upon his legs whilst still kneeling,
and oppressed with fatigue, he prayed. A good

222 COCHIN CHINA.

woman, (the wife of the chief catechist, Luu,) who
followed her master to the place of execution, seeing
him so overcome and running down with perspira
tion, told Xa-pluiong to ask the Father if he would
eat or drink anything to restore himself. He
answered, " Indeed I am thirsty and hungry,
but of svhat use is it to eat or drink at this last
hour ?" After they had rested a little while the man
darin gave orders to go on. The journey continued
for about another hour, during which the servant of
God, as he had done before, said his rosary, at one
time bending his head and at another raising his
eyes to heaven. When they had arrived at the
appointed place the mandarin said, " Halt, we are
now arrived ; prepare a mat that the priest may sit
down upon it." His orders were obeyed, and Philip
on his knees made an offering of his life to God.
The sentence was fixed upon his shoulders; one
soldier broke his chain, and another tied his hair
round his head like a crown, whilst a third tightened
his hands and arms to such an extent as to thrust for
ward his chest again. Philip witnessed and endured
all these preparations with the greatest patience.
When everything was ready he asked the mandarin
to allow him a few minutes, which was willingly
granted. Xa-pluiong prostrated himself before the
servant of God, and saluted him according to the
Asiatic custom, and Philip once more begged that
they would pray for him. Xa-pluiong answered,
"Yes, father, I heartily pray that God may give
you the necessary strength." Philip bent his head

COCHIN CHINA. 223

in token of gratitude for this answer. Amongst the
other prayers which he had before been heard to use
the following one was noted. " My mother, come
to my assistance ;" and the wife of Luu certified
that he also cried out, " 0 God, my Father, pardon
me, a sinner."

At length, after the servant of God had prayed a
long while in a low voice, and shed many tears, the
mandarin asked him if he had finished. Philip
answered that he had, and giving his rosary to Xa-
pluiong he said these last words : " Pray for me,
abide in peace, you and those who are still in chains.''
Then the mandarin gave the sign, and the execu
tioner with one blow of the sword separated the
head from the body of the sufferer, who courageously
underwent death without showing any sign of fear.

Hardly had the sentence been executed when all
the mandarins and soldiers took precipitately to flight,
as if they were in dread of some heavy punishment
for having put an innocent man to death. After
the execution a soldier seized the venerable head
by the hair and was running fast to throw it into the
river, but Xa-pluiong ran after him, and for
the sum of three pieces recovered it and placed
it with 'the body. Some of the Christians came
to the place of execution and gathered up with
sponges the blood that had been shed; several of
the heathens wished to imitate them, but a pious
woman, unwilling to allow it, tried to snatch a
sponge filled with blood from the hands of one of
them ; the man, however, stoutly defended himself,

224 COCHIN CHINA.

and he escaped crying out gladly, as if he had
secured a treasure, Let any one take it who can.

After the body of the servant of God had been
placed in a coffin, it was carried to the town of
Cainhum by four Christians. Here, with the assist
ance of three priests, of the catechists, of the dead
man's family, and of many other Christians, the
corpse was washed and dressed in the sacred
vestments, and laid out in a private oratory sur
rounded with lights. Solemn exequies were per
formed over him, but the Christians recited unwil
lingly the prayers for the dead, asking one another,
" What is the use of these prayers when Philip died
such a death?" After this the body was carried to
the Christian settlement of Cai-mong, his birth-place.
Having been there exposed in a private oratory,
clothed in sacred vestments and surrounded by lights,
it was then solemnly buried in the presence of about
a thousand Christians, who had come together from
all parts. There were many torches alight, the air
resounded with the plaintive chants, and the impos
ing ceremonies of the Church contributed much to
this last token of respect rendered to the illustrious
deceased.

Some extraordinary signs are reported to have
been seen after his death, and the bier sprinkled
with blood was seen shining with a brilliant light in
the darkness of the night in that part where the
head should have lain. This event took place after
the body with the head had been taken away.
However this may be, the memory of this illustrious

COCHIN CHINA. 225

servant of God is held in veneration by the Chris
tians of those parts, who anxiously await the judg
ment of the Church to raise Philip Minn to the rank
of martyr.

SECTION II.

An account of tJie Martyrdom of oilier Confessors,
written ~by the same Bishop.

PETER DINK.

Peter Dinh, the head of a family, was one of the
catechists amongst the Christians of Cai-nhum, in
in the province of Vinh-long. Whilst the Bishop of
Isauropolis was residing in this locality he sought
for some inhabitant who might be willing to take a
house for him in his own name, and so become his
protector, and at the same time the means of keeping
him concealed. Dinh undertook this office, but it
cost him his life. It happened that on the 30th of
October 1844, a captain of a band of officers, sent
by the president of the province, arrived in Cai-
nhurn with his troop. lie there obtained certain
information from a child, partly by kindness and
partly by threats, as to the residence of the bishop.
As soon as he knew where it was, he went straight
to the house of Peter Dinh to arrest the prelate.
The bishop had time to escape, and the attack
15

226 COCHIN CHINA.

turned on the catechist Dinh, whom the captain of
the troop did his utmost to compel to disclose the
place whither the bishop had fled. Peter refused to
betray the secret, and was in consequence put to the
torture, but in vain, for he maintained an unalterable
silence.

The officer of the troop was in a great fury, and
had him cruelly beaten three or four times, so
that altogether Peter received more than a hun
dred blows. The only words he uttered during his
sufferings were these, " 0 Lord Jesus," which made
the inhuman soldier so wrathful and furious that he
ordered him to be struck on the face also for having
used this odious invocation.

All hope of learning where the bishop had escaped
to seemed lost, when the father of the child, who,
as we have said, had revealed that the bishop was
living in the house of Peter, yielded to threats,
and made known the bishop's hidingplace. Dinh was
then left alone, and the soldiers went in search of
the more illustrious victim. From that day how
ever, Peter was no longer able to rise from his
bed, and became so weak as to be scarcely able to
move his sore and wounded limbs. He had been a
man of excellent disposition, fearing God and faithful
in fulfilling the duties of a Christian, so that he
enjoyed a good reputation among his neighbours ; and
the patience with which he endured his sufferings
was indeed wonderful and heroic. Instead of lament
ing his death he felt himself happy in being able to
endure so great sufferings for the name of Christ.

'COCHIN CHINA. 227

His only wish would have been, if his strength had
permitted it, to have been put in prison along with
the others who had been arrested.

At length, strengthened by the sacraments of the
Church, he calmly reposed in our Lord, on the
9th November 1844, eleven days after his cruel
scourging.

The authors of his death were in great dread of
being deprived of their office for this crime. They
had no power to have an innocent man beaten to
death without h:'s having been condemned, and their
guilt would have been recognised even by heathen
judges. They accordingly endeavoured to hush up
the cause and particulars of his death. The re
lations of Dinh took no steps to press the charge,
but these wicked men, although they escaped the
judgment of men, will not be able to avoid that of
God.

MATTHEW GAM.

Matthew Gam was born of Christian parents at
the village of Long-dui, in the province of Bien-hoa,
about the year 1814. He was married and had
children, but the love of his family did not withhold
him from undergoing the danger of crossing the
sea and taking to Singapore the students who had
been selected for the seminary, as well as the
property belonging to the missions, and convey
ing back the missionaries who had been exiled
from Cochin China by the authorities. He was
the captain of the ship that brought back the Bishop

228 COCHIN CHINA.

of Isauropolis, and the missioner D. Peter Duclas,
when they returned to Cochin China, and on enter
ing port he was arrested with them, and taken
to the prisons in the province of Gia-dinh, on
the 6th June 1846. The mandarins then set to
work to arrange the prosecution. When Matthew
was interrogated he confessed that he was a Chris
tian, and sentence of death was passed on him. The
reasons given for this sentence were, that Matthew
had traded to foreign lands in forbidden commerce,
that he had brought with him European priests
of the Christian religion, who were strictly pro
hibited from entering the kingdom; lastly, that
he was himself a Christian, and would not re
nounce that religion. This sentence was forwarded
to the capital, and the king confirmed it, assigning
the same reasons. The royal decree was issued
about the month of December 1846, and it reached
the province of Gia-dinh in March 1847. The
magistrates of the province were anxious that Mat
thew should escape death, and they asked the man
darins of the capital to obtain his pardon from the
king. It happened however, that in consequence
of an action with French ships, in which those
of Cochin China suffered great loss, the king was
much enraged, and the mandarins of the court
therefore, despairing of obtaining the favour, wrote
back that Matthew must undergo his punishment
ten days after the solemn sacrifice offered up on the
15th day of the third moon. The sentence was in
fact executed twelve days after the feast.

COCHIN CHINA. 229

Matthew, meanwhile, afraid lest the sentence
should be revoked, said he feared that his sins
might make him get off the punishment. Three
days before his execution, when he was made cer
tain of his approaching death, burning with desire
to lay down his life for Jesus Christ, he was heard
to pray in these words, shedding many tears :
" Permit me, 0 Lord, to undergo this punishment,
which is not enough to satisfy for my sins ;" and,
in a letter which he wrote to Mgr. Miche, he thus
expressed himself : " From the day I was arrested
up to this hour, to die for Jesus Christ has been
my only desire. This life passes very quickly, but
the life to come in heaven is a blessed and an eter
nal one. I have always wished that the name of
God might be glorified by me ; whatever God com
mands me, I will willingly obey His will. Thus
has God disposed with regard to me, and I will
adore and love Him with a perfect love, that I may
be found faithful in His sight. He that overcomes
in this world, will receive an eternal reward in
heaven. All the months that I have been in prison
I have abounded in joy ; I have never been sor
rowful nor solicitous for the things of this earth,
not even for my father or mother, for my wife, or
for my children."

On one of these days the mandarin went to the
prison, and asked him if he would deny his religion :
" Then I will write to the king," he added, " that you
may be delivered from death.'' Matthew answered
him : " I will not deny it ; you may cut off my head if

230 COCHIN CHINA.

you like." Once again at the tribunal the mandarin
said: "You are only guilty of the crime of your
religion, and for this you must suffer death : if yois
abandon your religion I will save your life." " Sir,"
answered Matthew, " I have professed this religion
from my earliest years ; I will never deny it, not even
to escape death." He repeated these sentiments
several times. Then the mandarin said : " I am
innocent ; the laws command it ; say no more. Your
wife and children, who will survive you, move me to
pity ;" and turning to the soldiers, he said : " Take
off his chains, and carry him away.'' Matthew, no
thing daunted, turned to a pious Christian woman,
and said to her : " Our Lord, although quite sinless,
suffered death, and I who am a sinner, shall also
suffer death ; oh how happy I am !" Leaving the
judgment hall, he met a Christian with whom he
was acquainted, and said to him : " To-day I am
very happy; now I fear nothing." He made known
his joy, which he could not repress, to several of
the pagans. To one he said : " Oh how will
ingly do I die ! I might avoid death, if I would but
speak one word, but I prefer to appear guilty for a
little while longer, before this king, rather than before
the other King, and then I shall be happy." To an
other he said : " I consent to die with all my heart."
He had uttered the same sentiments at the time
he was captured, for he then said to the Bishop of
Isauropolis, "I believe that this time I shall die;
but it does not matter, for my heart is ready."
When he reached the place of punishment,

COCHIN CHINA. 231

and heard the herald repeating his sentence in an
undertone of voice, he said to him : " Cry out aloud,
that all may hear ;" and turning to the mandarin,
he said : " I am very happy to have to die thus ;
what are you afraid of? Why do you not command
my sentence to be proclaimed in a loud voice ?"

In order to understand what we are about to
relate, it is necessary to recollect that Matthew
had thrice received the Sacrament of Penance since
the day that he had been seized. On the last occa
sion, having heard from the priest Than that he
was certainly to be put to death, and that he would
also give him again the sacramental absolution
during his last combat, Matthew laid aside all
worldly thoughts, and showed his earnest wish
to die. All those who visited him after that time
relate that he desired the hour of his death with
all the affection of his heart. He had directed
his wife and children not to come to him, in
order that their presence might not distract him.

When Matthew was outside the gates of the
town, on his way to the place of execution, he
earnestly looked from side to side, in hopes of seeing
the priest. When he recognised a Christian in
the crowd, he cheerfully saluted him, and bid him
farewell; but when he saw the priest, he bent
his head, and instead of looking about him any more,
made signs of contrition with a recollected coun
tenance. Having arrived at the place of execu
tion and knelt down, he said to the executioner,
" Allow me a moment to do my duty, then thou

232 COCHIN CHINA.

shalt do thine." The executioner gave him the
permission, whereupon the priest made the sign
before agreed upon, and Matthew, stretched on
the ground, reciting the act of contrition, was seen
to strike his breast three times, whilst the priest
gave him absolution. This scene will be better
understood by a Christian heart than described.

After that Matthew sat down, and the soldiers tied
his hands, and cut the cangue. Matthew said to
them : " Let me kneel down, and do not tie me."
" It is impossible," they answered, " thou must
sit down and be bound." He remained kneeling
notwithstanding.

When the mandarin gave the signal, the exe
cutioner let fall a stroke on Matthew, but it
scarcely grazed his skin. No movement was visible,
and no word escaped the lips of the servant of God.
The executioner repeated the stroke, and the head
was severed from the body.

When the sentence had been executed, and the
soldiers had received orders from the mandarin to
return, the Christians approached the place of execu
tion, and placed together the body and the head of
the venerable man. They laid them in a coffin, and
buried them in the cemetery. Even the pagans sym
pathised, and said that the man had not committed
any crime worthy of such a punishment. The llth
of May 1847, was Matthew's last day upon earth,
and his first in the happy eternity which he had so
earnestly desired.

COCHIN CHINA. 233

LOUIS NGO, CATECHIST.

Louis Ngo, who was nearly seventy years of age,
was chief catechist of the village of Cai-nhum, and
was appointed the head of the Christians of the whole
district. He was involved in the same catastrophe
as that which brought about the death of Peter
Dinh, mentioned above. He was arrested on the
30th of October, in the year 1844, and loaded with
the cangue, for having given refuge to the bishop.
When the mandarin arrived to put the bishop
in prison, he ordered Louis to be tortured, but
without obtaining the desired result. The venera
ble old man, weak as he was in body, was strong in
spirit ; for he three times underwent the torment of
scourging, with wonderful patience, receiving twenty-
five blows each time, and being ready to die sooner
than betray his pastor. At last the Bishop was
arrested, on the information of another Christian.
Louis was then taken to the chief town of the pro
vince, with some others of the inhabitants. Several
times when he was urged by the mandarins of the
province to renounce the faith, he boldly answered
that he was ready to lose the little of life that
remained to him, sooner than abandon the religion
in which he had been brought up from his infancy.

When the royal rescript arrived at the prefecture,
ordering that the bishop and four of his chief compan
ions, amongst whom was Louis, should be taken to the
capital, the bishop, mandarins and Christians, all of

234 COCHIN CHINA.

one accord compassionating the old man, begged of
him to plead his age and infirmities, that he might be
allowed to remain in the prisons of the prefecture,
without exposing himself to the evident danger of
death, by undertaking so difficult and arduous a
journey. He resisted this advice with all his power,
saying : " Let me go whither the king calls me, and
only too happy shall I consider myself if I am
allowed to end my life in bonds for the faith. We
are all involved in the same cause, your lot shall be
mine ; whether it be to live or to die, I will follow
you." The bishop and his companions said no more,
being astonished at the constancy of the venerable old
man, who went with them, bound with an iron chain.
After some da}rs' journey over the mountains in the
ancient kingdom of Ciampa, and over difficult passes,
he became so weak that nobody thought he would
reach the capital. But he desired to confess the
faith once more in the royal city, and by the grace
of God, who heard his pious prayer, he reached the
wished-for place.

As soon as the five prisoners entered the
capital, they were led before the criminal tribunal.
Louis was the first to go before the judges,
and he was commanded to trample on the cross,
but detesting so great an act of impiety, he boldly
refused to secure a few more days of life by such
great wickedness, and protested that he would
remain a faithful disciple of Christ to his last
breath. The mandarin, seeing the old man quite
deprived of strength, and oppressed with severe

COCHIN CHINA. 235

illness, ordered his chains to be loosened. His
illness, however, had reached such a point that death
could not be kept off by any remedy. After nine
days of suffering, which was increased by sorrow
at the apostasy of one of his companions, and in the
course of which his wonderful patience was strength
ened by the Sacraments of Penance and Extreme
Unction, he went to heaven on the 26th of Febru
ary 1845, dying in the royal prisons, and antici
pating by his death the capital sentence, which
was a few days afterwards passed upon his com
panions.

SECTION in.

Extract from a letter of the Pro- Vicar Apostolic of
Cochin China , on the Martyrdom of JF. Egidius
Delamotte.

When M. Delamotte returned to Nhu-ly, he did
not remain in peace. The chief of the village and
the soldiers having disagreed amongst one another,
M. Delamotte did all he could to pacify them ; he
even gave up a sum of money from his daily allow
ance to the soldiers, in order to satisfy them. But
as the disagreement still continued, our brother, who
feared the consequences, resolved at last to go away.
He embarked for this purpose on the 13th of April
last, about ten o'clock in the evening. Unfortu-

236 COCHIN CHINA.

nately, the pagans of the two villages in the vicinity
of Nhu-ly had been informed of his presence, and
of his flight, and had placed themselves in ambush
in order to arrest him. Seeing the boat they came
forward with shouts, and endeavoured to seize him.
M. Delamotte finding that he was discovered, threw
himself into the water, in order to reach the shore
and escape. He was however, soon overtaken by
the pagans, who fell on him with a storm of blows.
It is the custom in this country to beat the per
son to be arrested, in order that he may not be
able to defend himself. When the morning of the
14th arrived, the pagans led him and his com
panion to the sub-prefecture, and thence to the pre
fecture of Quang-tri.

"When he arrived at the prefecture, M. Dela
motte was half dead from the blows he had received.
The mandarins did not allow him to be beaten or
maltreated, but interrogated him; as however he
answered in French no one understood him. The
king ordered the European to be taken to the royal
town, and reserved the judgment of the case to the
supreme tribunal. M. Delamotte was consequently
taken to the capital, which he reached on the 19th
of May. I here leave M. Delamotte to speak for
himself, by the letter which he wrote from prison.
It is without date, but evidently was written on on»
of the first four days of August.

COCHIN CHINA. 237

My Lord,

Four days ago I received your two letters of
March and May. Since the time of my arrest I
have intended every day to write to you at length,
but I cannot do so because I am strictly guarded
and watched. I am never alone, and am deprived
of paper, &c. I have the satisfaction of seeing all
my companions most courageous, firm, and un
shaken, and all most determined to die. For my
own part, I think I am going on very well. In the
first place, I say nothing, and complain of nothing.
I have not been put to the torture frequently, but
with great severity. First of all, as you already
doubtless know, the men who arrested me gave me
a furious beating, striking me with the dui (a long
and thick stick,) all over my body, particularly on
my head, which they cut open. There was a wound
in it five inches in length, and one in width ; it was
also very deep. There were other wounds of a
smaller size. I endured all this without crying out,
without saying a word, or giving way to a sigh. I
was losing torrents of blood, and felt myself half
dead. In my heart I begged of the good God that
they might beat me to death. When I reached the
Bo-hiu, (the palace of justice,) the great manda
rin Thuong-To, (the president, or first minister,)
annoyed me in a thousand ways to make me tram
ple on the cross. Three times he ordered my hands
to be tied, and the stakes to be driven into the
ground, to beat me ; nevertheless, he did not have
me beaten. He gave me the cangue in addition to

238 COCHIN CHINA.

the chain which I had. Five or six times he
had me seized by five soldiers, to compel me to
tread on the cross. I struggled so hard that we
never got upon it; my dress was all torn in the
contest. My legs were covered with wounds from
the links of my chain, which were very light, and
my trousers were all stained with blood. More than
ten times I declared to the mandarin that I would
never trample on the cross, and that sooner than
do such an act I would have my head cut off, &c.
He was very angry indeed. On the following day
I was relieved of the cangue. When my com
panions arrived here, we were all put to the torture.
They gave me ten blows with a stick, on the left
side, and each blow drew blood, A cavity was sub
sequently formed, which has discharged much mat
ter, and this came, I believe, in consequence of the
blows having been repeated on the same place. A
day or two afterwards I was put to the torture of
the pincers, with the instruments cold. Only two
were set, and on my right side ; but for a very long
time together, each for more than an hour. During
both these tortures they again tried all they could to
make me trample on the cross, but in vain. I did
not cry out, nor utter any complaint during these
torments, but did nothing but smile, and this dis
pleased them. To say the truth, I did not feel
much pain from these tortures, I looked upon it all
as a game. It is said that the king washes to save
me to take M. Jaccard's place. This fills me with
pain and sadness, I pray daily, and I have also

COCHIN CHINA. 239

asked my companions to ask for me the grace of
suffering death with them. I beg that you also
will ask this grace for me, and persuade others to
do the same.

The king supports me, and he has already given
me fifty pieces, (first twenty and then thirty,)
and five flasks of wine ; but I have to deal with bad
superintendents, who treat me very ill. I am always
ill; and have been twice on the point of death,
the doctor giving me up for lost ; this was all owing
to the bad food, salt fish, salt water, and salted
herbs. My stomach cannot endure this, for it has
suffered much, and is in a very weak and languid
state.

Three or four times a day the king sends to
inquire about me ; he has also sent a message to the
physician, that if he does not cure me he will have
him beaten to death. On the 30th of July I felt
myself dying, and on the following day, the 31st,
the king ordered my chain to be taken off. I did
not wish this. It was a very heavy chain, at least
fifteen pounds in weight, very tight and very tor
menting. I said that I carried it for the sake of
my religion, that it became light to me, and that
I did not wish to part with it until death. We
disputed for a long time, I think more than an hour ;
but I had to yield at last.*

* Three or four days afterwards, M. Delamotte,
finding himself better, had his chain put on again,
but, towards the beginning of September, having
fallen dangerously ill again, it was taken from him

240 COCEIN CHINA.

I hope that since the king is unwilling to put
me to death, the good God will allow me to die of
illness ; I desire it, and beg it of Him with all my
heart.

Adieu, my Lord, my dear father, and my dear
guide, pray for us, and have prayers said. This is
the only thing I entreat of you. If God shows me
the mercy of admitting me into His heavenly taber
nacle, I will not forget you, nor the mission, nor
our brethren, nor the associates of the propagation
of the faith. Send news of me, I beg of you, to all
our brethren on the missions, to our esteemed friends
at Paris, and to the members of the propagation of
the faith: Cupio dissolvi et esse cum Christo. I
embrace you in osculo sancto.

In his letter of the 2nd of September, quoted
above, he says : " Yesterday and today I have
been very ill, and it is now four days since the doc
tor began to attend me ; but so far from getting
better, I am getting worse day by day, and am

a second time. Father della Villa, who informed me
of the altercation about the taking oft' the chain,
tells me, "The pagans were particularly astonished
to see the father refuse to be freed from his chains.
The whole of the Trali-phu united to move him to
give his consent ; the two Oug-nghe said to him : If
you will not allow your chain to be taken off, the
king will cut your head off. This is what I most
ardently desire, replied M. Delamotte. The physi
cian Bra, having made him understand that he ought
to yield, he at last did so."

COCHIN CHINA. 241

suffering from a diarrhoea which weakens me very
much."

From the 1st of September this fellow-labourer of
ours continued to sink. Towards the end of the same
month he became better for some days, but soon
relapsed into a state of weakness, and at length,
on the 2nd of October, went to receive the reward
promised to those who suffer persecution for justice
sake: Beati qui persecutionem patiuntur propter
justitiam, quia ipsorum est regnwn ccelorum.

This dear brother was extremely circumspect.
The physician Hoa sent him a message that he
could obtain permission to visit him. M. Dela-
motte consented with difficulty, and they simply
saw one another, without speaking except by looks.
Here is another proof of his circumspection, which
especially shows his heroic patience and persevering
courage. The physician Hoa wished to obtain
permission from the mandarins, who were the
superintendents of the prison, and from the Ong-
nghe, that Sister Hau might cook for him, and
informed him of this through the interpreter.
M. Delamotte answered him in a note which I will
now translate.

" The interpreter has told me of your plan for my
cooking. Certainly if it could be done I should be
much the better for it ; but I do not approve of it,
since the pagans, as you know as well as I do, take
pleasure in spreading bad reports about the teachers
of religion and religious women. Perhaps you hear
these reports every day, as I hear them here. I do

16

242 COCHIN CHINA.

not wish, therefore, that Sister Hau should un
dertake to cook my food. If any one else were
to cook my rice, occasion would be equally taken
from that fact to speak wrongly and falsely about it,
and this might expose you and others to every kind
of annoyance for my sake, and perhaps even to death.
I prefer therefore to suffer as I have done up to
this time, rather than expose any one to danger on
my account."

The physician Hoa accordingly gave up his plan,
and this made M. Delamotte's sacrifice very meri
torious before God, for he suffered much at this time
from the nourishment he received from the jailers,
who gave him badly prepared rice, not properly
separated from the husk, as well as other food
which was revolting to the stomach of a European.
The king had given him fifty pieces to provide
for his nourishment, but it was to be spent at the
rate of three-tenths of a piece a day. The king soon
repented of even this generosity, and reduced his
allowance to two-tenths of a piece a day. (The
massa is the tenth part of a piece ; and the piece
of Cochin China is worth about one shilling of our
money.) Of these two-tenths, the jailer who served
him kept at least half for himself; and without
doubt made our fellow-labourer pay for oil, wood,
and a thousand other little things, according to the
prison custom.

When he was obliged to fly from the village,
where he was hidden, he was seized by the pagans,
after having received a blow from a stick upon the

COCHIN CHINA. 243

head, which made a very large and deep wound;
but he did not so much as give way to a single*
complaint. When he was taken to the capital of
the kingdom, he was three times cruelly tortured,
especially the last time, when the pincers were
fixed upon him for more than three hours, and he
smiled at the powerless fury of the mandarins, who
wanted to make him apostatise and reveal his com
panions. At last, after having confessed the faith
most nobly, and preserved a total silence upon all
things that concerned the mission, he died of his
wounds in prison, after a captivity of more than six
months, and of all our martyrs, I think M. Delamotte
is the one who has suffered most.

244

CHAPTEE V.

OCEANICA.

Account of the Martyrdom of Fr. Louis Chanel,
of the Congregation ' of Marists, ~by Monsignor
Bataillon, Vicar Apostolic of Central Oceanica.

Peter Mary Louis Chanel was born at Cuet, in
the diocese of Belley, on the 23rd of June 1803.
From his earliest years his innocent and irre
proachable life drew upon him the love and
respect of his relations, friends, superiors, and
teachers. He spent his infancy and youth in the
constant practice of Christian virtues. What was
chiefly admirable in him was his sweet piety, his
unalterable serenity, his noble assiduity in study,
and an innocence which I might almost call angelic.
When called by God to the ecclesiastical state, and
appointed to the several offices of the ministry, he
proved himself truly exemplary and admirable. He
was vicar of Amberieu, assisted the parish priest of
Crozet, and professor, spiritual prefect, and director
of the Petit Seminaire of Belley.

In his different charges he succeeded in conciliating
the esteem and affection of all those with whom his

OCEANICA. 245

ministry brought him into relations, and his life was
ever a perfect model, as his bishop testifies, of all
the virtues of a priest, especially of a tender piety,
which he never lost, and of an ardent and enlightened
zeal for the salvation of souls, and lastly, of an
unalterable sweetness of disposition.

The priest Chanel, being desirous of embracing a
more perfect state of life, entered into the Society of
Mary, which had been approved by the Holy See in
1836, and which received at the same time the
charge of the mission of Western Oceanica. On the
24th of September of the same year, F. Chanel, to
gether with F. Servant and F. Bataillon, (afterwards
Bishop of Enos and Vicar Apostolic of Central Ocean
ica,) made his vows to the first superior-general of the
said congregation, and on the 24th of the following
December left France, together with the above-men
tioned colleagues, and Mgr. Pompallier, who named
him vicar-general. Ten months afterwards, on the
7th November 1837, Mgr. Pompallier landed at
Wallis, where he left F. Bataillon ; the next day F.
Chanel landed in the island of Futuna, forty leagues
distant from Wallis, and the bishop went with F.
Servant to establish himself in New Zealand.

Louis Mary had no other companions in Futuna
than a lay brother, called Mary Nizier, and an Eng
lish Protestant, called Thomas, whom the missioners
had taken as interpreter in a neighbouring island,
and who wished to remain with F. Chanel. This
Englishman, in his company, soon became a fervent
Catholic. The servant of God was received at Futuna

246 OCEANIC A.

by the king or chief of the island, called Niuliki,
who agreed to keep him with himself as a friend,
and undertook to maintain him and to furnish
him with everything he stood in need of, without
knowing however that he was a missionary. During
the two first years of his sojourn in the island, P.
Chanel only occupied himself in learning the lan
guage of the country, and slowly travelling over
the island to find out children in danger of death,
in order to baptize them. As long as he did not
know the language, and was not able to preach, he
lived peacefully with the king Niuliki. But in the
latter half of the year 1839, the servant of God, who
now began to speak the language well, also began to
preach the Gospel.

He sought most of all to instruct and convert
the king Niuliki, being convinced that he would
easily convert the people when he had won over
the king. But Xiuliki was also high priest,
and his royal dignity was the consequence of
his sacerdotal one, that is to say, according to
the custom of the country, the person who was
chosen by their great divinity for his residence or
tabernacle, became by that choice king of the island.
"We can easily understand the obstacle this threw
into the way of the conversion of Niuliki. Accord
ingly, when he discovered that the words of the mis
sionary began to make an impression upon the minds
of the people in regard to religion, he cooled towards
him, and seemed to wish to break off his acquaint
ance altogether, for he fixed his dwelling in

OCEANIC A. 247

another village, and gradually ceased to send him
provisions, as he used to do before. The servant of
God being deprived of that assistance, was compelled
to cultivate the soil with his two companions, in order
to provide for their support. In May 1840, Mgr.
Pompallier sent to them from New Zealand F. Chev
ron and Br. Attale, who both settled in Futuna with
F. Chanel, and remained there to the end of the year.
The new comers also set themselves to labour, and by
dint of great efforts were enabled to form a con
siderable plantation to provide for their maintenance.
The inhabitants then began to steal their fruits, and
one would have said that they were going to starve
them out of the island. Nevertheless, F. Chanel did
not give up visiting the king and the chief persons of
the island, and urging them to be converted. At length
several young men were converted, and they assem
bled on Sundays at the house of the missionary, where
they received instructions and prayed together. Such
was the state of things when F. Chevron and brother
Attale left Futuna, at the end of the year 1840, to go
to "Wallis, F. Bataillon having requested them of the
servant of God that they might instruct the people.

Meanwhile the number of the catechumens in
creased, and their meetings on Sundays at F.
Chanel's house excited the anger of the enemies of
religion, and above all, of the king and his family.
Oftentimes rumours of death reached the ears of the
missionary, and one day, when there was a large
concourse in the village, his companion came to
warn him that they intended to put him to death.

248 OCEANICA.

" You know," answered the venerable servant of
God, "what we read in the life of a saint:
when he was asked, What would you do if you were
told that in an hour you would have to die, the
saint answered, I should finish what I am about.
Let us then do the same," observed F. Chanel, and
with that he continued to work in his garden. This
incident showed how like he was in his holy indif
ference to St. Aloysius, whose name he had already
taken, and whose virtues he was imitating.

That time the danger passed away, but the pagans
became more angry and violent when it was known
that Meitala, the son of the king, was amongst the
catechumens. Niuliki, although he was ignorant of
this fact, saw nevertheless the number of converts
increasing, and held a council, in which it was resolved
that everything belonging to the missionary should
be taken to Thamana, the residence of his majesty.
By thus obliging F. Chanel to live near the king, it
was thought that both neophytes and catechumens,
fearing the anger of their sovereign, would not dare
to continue their relations with the servant of God.
After this council the king, finding himself alone
with his minister and relative Musumusu, said to
him, " Do you think these barbarians who have
come to make slaves in Futuna will succeed after
all ?" The minister begged him to explain himself
more clearly. " I allude," said the king, "to the white
barbarians who have come to make slaves." Then
Musumusu rejoined, " If you hate the white men go
and seize their property, take it to your own house,

OCEANICA. 249

and I will go and kill them." The king was silent, but
his intentions were well understood. Musumusu on
leaving him returned to his village, and as he was
going there he was informed that Meitala, the son of
the king, was one of the catechumens, and he imme
diately sent the intelligence to Niuliki. The king
at once went to the place where his son was,
and meeting Musumusu on the way he asked if it
was true that Meitala had been converted. " Yes,
it is true," he replied. " If it be so," answered the
king, " I will have nothing more to do with this son ;
you may beat him severely." Afterwards, on seeing
his son, Muliki gave vent to his anger and threats
against him, but not succeeding in making him
change his mind, he returned to his residence.

On the 27th of April 1841, a council was held in
Alofi, a small island dependant on Futuna. Many
old men and some youths assisted at it. It was
resolved that war should be declared against the cate
chumens, and that without any delay they should go
to Avani, where the catechumens used to assemble.
As Musumusu was not present at this meeting, four
of the natives went the same evening to inform him
officially of the resolution which had been adopted.
"And what has been decided," asked Musumusu,
"about him who is the author of this religion?"
" We have not spoken about him this time," said the
messengers. " If you would join us," said the minis
ter, " we would go and kill this white man." " Will
not Niuliki be displeased at it ?" " No, I assure you
he will not." Accordingly they decided that they

250 OCEANICA.

would first make war on the catechumens, and that
afterwards they would kill F. Chanel.

On the 28th of April 1841, about dawn, a savage
band of men armed with spears, clubs, and hatchets,
under the command of Musumusu, came upon
Avani, where the catechumens were, surprised them
in their sleep, and wounded a large number. Musu
musu, while holding a catechumen to have him
beaten, received by accident a blow on his nose,
which wounded him and drew blood. As soon
as the pagans had vented their fury on Avani, they
hurried on to the missionary. Those who reached
the house of the servant of God first were Mu
sumusu, Felitika, Fuasea, Umutuali, and Ukuloa.
Musumusu was the first to show himself before the
Father, and found him in his garden, which was
situated at the back of his house, feeding the
chickens ; he was alone, as he had sent the catechist
elsewhere. When the Father saw Musumusu ap
proach, he left what he was engaged in, went to
meet him, and asked him, " Where do you come
from ?" " From Asoa,'' answered Musumusu.
" What is the object of this visit?" " I have come
to ask a remedy for the blow I have received."
" How did you receive the wound ?" " Felling some
cocoa trees." " Wait here and I will go and look
for a remedy." Whilst the good Father was speak
ing to Musumusu, Filitika and Ukuloa entered
the house. The Father had scarcely advanced one
or two steps into it when he met Filitika, who was
coming away with an armful of linen, and said to

OCEANIC A. 251

him, " Filitika, why do you come with the con
querors to act the master in my house ?" Filitika
did not answer a word, but threw the linen out of
the window, and the people eagerly came to pick it
up. Then Musumusu, who was outside, cried out,
" Why do not you kill him?" At these words
Umutuali dealt a heavy blow with a club on the
head of the missionary, who cried out in surprise,
" Oh, do not ! do not !" and tried to parry the blow
from his head with his arm, but his arm was
broken and dropped beside him. Then the servant
of God went back two or three steps, but Filitika,
who was behind him, pushed him forward with great
violence, saying to those who were outside, " Strike
him at once that he may die." Upon this Umutuali
discharged another blow with the club on the Father's

O

left temple, and made a great contusion upon it, from
which blood flowed in great abundance.

The venerable servant of God, without uttering a
cry or a groan, and without sighing or weeping, only
kept repeating, " Very well," showing his resignation
to death. Whilst Umutuali beat him savagely with
his club, Ukuloa struck him severely with a stick.
Fuasea, another of the assassins, who was armed with
a lance, surmounted by a bayonet, furiously attacked
the missionary. The blow was aimed under his right
arm, so that the point of the bayonet grazed his
arm without wounding him, but the strength of the
stroke made the servant of G-od go back and fall to
the ground. Ukuloa gave the priest another blow as
he was lying on the ground. Seeing him thrown

252 OCEANICA.

down, his executioners left him sitting on the ground
and leaning against a heap of bamboos ; while the
wounded missionary with bent head, wiped the
blood which flowed from him. Meanwhile the pillage
of the house was carried on, and it was soon com
pletely emptied. A native of the island of Aloft
entered the house, and seeing the father lying before
him, said, " Peter is assassinated." The servant of
God asked him where Maligi was, an old man,
attached to the missionary. " He is in Alofi," re
plied the other ; then the servant of God spoke his
last words, " My death is nothing but good to me."

Musumusu, seeing the men intent on plunder,
cried out: "You did not come here to secure
riches. Why have you not wounded him mortally?"
and going into the house, he looked for a stick, but
finding one of Father Chanel's hatchets instead, he
seized it, and attacked him by discharging a heavy
blow on the top of his head, and completely burying
the weapon in it.

The blow struck the top of the head, so as to
split it directly in the centre, and Musumusu
promptly withdrew the weapon, which caused part
of the brain to come out. This deadly blow killed
Father Chanel, who fell with his face on the ground,
and gave up his soul to his Creator.

Some pious women washed his body, which was
covered with blood, and anointed it with oil
of cocoa. The king and Musumusu, together with
some women, dug a grave close to the spot where
the servant of God had been killed, and buried him

OCEANICA. 253

there. Much thunder was heard in the heavens
at the same time, although the sky was clear.

Brother Mary Nizier, and Thomas the English
man, having been warned by some well-disposed
people, avoided returning to their old habitation, and
after fifteen days of anxious suffering, escaped in
a European ship which passed those shores and con
veyed them to Wallis.

After some time, a French corvette, commanded
by M. Duboizet, with Father Viard, vicar gene
ral of Mgr. Pompallier on board, arrived at Futuna.
They succeeded in getting on board one of the
guilty chiefs of the tribe, who, as he had not been
one of the assassins at the massacre, had freely
presented himself to the captain. From him they
learnt how, shortly after the death of Father Chanel,
King Niuliki, and many other of the accomplices in
the missionary's death, themselves died miserably.
" I meant to avenge the death of the French mis
sionary," said the captain, " but the bishop and his
companions have begged that the island may be
spared, and 1 also see how God has punished this
outrage. I therefore pardon you, but you must
bring me the body of Father Chanel, and everything
which belonged to him."

The chief Maligi soon afterwards brought the
body, the things which had belonged to the deceased,
and the hatchet which had struck his head. Every
thing was taken to Lyons, and the hatchet may be
seen in the museum of the Propagation of the
Faith.

254 OCEANICA.

Meanwhile the few catechumens who had sur
vived in Futuna began to preach the faith. Won
derful to relate, the whole island was suddenly
converted at their preaching. In proof of this,
five months afterwards, towards the end of May
1842, when Mgr. Pompallier passed that island on
his return from Wallis to New Zealand, he found it
entirely converted, and baptized a considerable
number of its inhabitants, leaving F. Servant there
with another priest, together with Brother Mary
Kizier. These new labourers had only to finish
the instruction and baptism of the whole population.

On the 23rd of May in the following year, Musu-
musu, the murderer of Father Chanel, came to
Wallis with many other neophytes or catechumens
from Futuna ; he was himself a catechumen. Hav
ing fallen dangerously ill shortly after his arrival, he
had himself carried to Father Bataillon's dwell
ing, and earnestly asked to be baptized, confessing
his crime, and asking forgiveness for it. At his
baptism he took the name of Maurice. He recovered
from his illness some months afterwards, and returned
with his companions to the island of Futuna, in excel
lent dispositions.

After Father Bataillon was consecrated bishop,
and made vicar apostolic of central Oceanica, he told
Father Servant to assemble all the inhabitants of the
island, and draw up a verbal process of the death of
Father Chanel, from the depositions of the witnesses.
This was done on the third of August 1845, in the
reign of Meitala, (the converted son of Niuliki).

OCEANICA. 255

]\Iaurice Musumusu lent his useful aid in assembling
the people and drawing up the process, and having
paid this homage to his victim, he died in the follow
ing manner.

He was attacked by a languishing sickness, which
he endured for some months, repenting still more
of his crime. Feeling that his end was approaching,
he asked to be taken to the house of the missionary
who had been killed, in order to die near him and
near the place where he had perpetrated his crime.
Having arrived there, he remained in the house
until with sentiments of deep repentance, and in all
the excellent dispositions natural to a Christian
penitent, he gave up his soul to God, and, as we
hope, he went to receive in heaven the assurance of
the pardon of his victim who had prayed for him.

256
DECRETTJM

COREAN, CONCINCINEN, TUNCKINEN, ET SINEN.

BEATIFICATIONIS, SEU DECLARATIONS MARTYRII
SEB-VORUM DEI

LAUKENTII IMBERT

EP1SCOPI CAPSENSIS ET ALIORUM.

Cum primum per Apostolos divina lux Evangelii
hominibus affulsit : facta est persecutio magna in
Ecdesia (Act. Ap. viii. 1.) ac teterrima ilia erupit
conspiratio, quam David olim vaticinatus fuerat :
adstiterunt lieges terrae, et principes convenerunt in
unum adversus Dominum, et adversus Christum ejus.
(Psal. ii. 2.) A primaeva ilia aetate Ecclesiae num-
quam bollum istud nefarium intermissum est in veros
Christifideles, nee intermitti poterat: hoc enini
signum et indicium Veritatis Cliristianae divinus ille
Ecclesiae Conditor fore praedixerat : Si de mundo
fuissetis, mundus quod suum erat diligeret, quia vero
de mundo non estis, sed ego elegi vos de mundo, prop-

terea odit vos mundus si me persecuti sunt et

vos persequentur. (Joan. xv. 19, 20.) Quo circa
nihil unquam optatius, nihil antiquius Pastoribus
Ecclesiae fuit, quam ut de iis gloriareniur, gaudio-
que gestirent, qui labentibus saeculis, perque varias
regiones bella Domini strenue praeliarentur, et
acerbissima quaeque fortiter perpessi divinum hunc

DECRETUM. 257

Ecclesiae characterem, notamque luculentissimam
christianae veritatis et alionis ostenderent, et catho-
licae societati vindicarent. Atque huic quidem
aetati nostrae illud contigit auspicatissime, ut neque
vetustati inviderct, neque novis careret armis, quibus
hostes suos unclique scatentes gloriosissime profligaret.
Namque in extremis Orientis plagis, Tunckino
nempe, Concincina, Corea, ac Sinensi Imperio com-
plures Dei Famulos fortiter pro Christo mortem
oppetiisse gravissimis documentis testatum est.
Quum igitur Seminarium Parisiense Missionum ad
exteros, et illius nomine R. P. D. Gustavus de
Hohenlohe Postulator deputatus Sanctissimum Domi-
num Nostrum Pium Papam IX. enixe rogaret, ut
habitis loco informativi Processus hisce authenticis
documentis super Martyr! um, et causam Martjrii
praedictorum Servorum Dei, eamdem vcniam con-
cedere dignaretur, quam septendecim abhinc annis
in Causa persimili largitus est sa. me. Gregorius
Papa XVI, ac proinde Sacrorum Rituum peculiari
Conventui committere vellet discutiendum Dubium :
An sit signanda Commissio introductions Causae
praedictorum Servomm Dei in casu, et ad cffectum
de quo acjitur ? allatis documentis ut supra praefotis,
et audito in scriptis pro veritate Voto II. IJ. D.
Andreae Mariae Frattini, Sanctae Fidei Promotoris
Sanctissimus benigne preces excipiens, clementer
annuit reservata sibi nominatione Congregationis
particularis ut ex edito rescripto diei 14 Julii 1856,
Quapropter particularis hujusmodi Congregatio
coadunata subscripta die in Aedibus Emi. et Emi.

258 DECRETUM.

Domini Cardinalis Constantini Patrizi, Episcopi
Albanensis, Sacrorum Eituum Congregationis Prae-
fecti, consideratis libratisque praedictis documen-
tis, attentoque Voto E. P. D. Andrea Mariae Frat-
tini^anctae Fidei Promotions, qui etiam voce suam
sententiam exposuit, proposito sequent! dubio : An
sit siynanda Commissio introductionis Causae prae-
dictorum Servorum Dei in casu et ad effect um de
quo agitur ? rescribendura censuit : Si Sanctlssimo
placuerit signandam essepro sequentibus, nimirum —
Laurentio Imbert Episcopo Capsensi-^Pelro Mau-
bant et Jaeobo Chastan Sacerdotibus Seminarii
Parisiensis Missionum ad exteros — Augustino Y —
Barbara Y ejus nxore — ac Agatha Y eorumdem
filia — Damiano Nam — ac Maria Nam ejus uxore —
Petro Kouen — Agatha Y vidua — Magdalena Kim
vidua — Barbara Kou — Anna Pak — Agatha Kim —
Lucia Pak — Maria Kieng — Joanne Baptista Y,
Augustini Fratre — Magdalena Y — Magdalena ejus
Matre — Theresia — B arbara — B arbara altera — Mar
tha Kim — Lucia Kim — Anna Kim vidua — Rosa
Kim vidua — Maria Ouen— Joanne Pak — Maria Pak
— Paulo Tins — Auomstino Lion — Carolo Tchao —

o o

Sebastiano Nam — Ignatio Kim — Judith Kim —
Agatha Tsen — Magdalena Pak — Perpetua Hong —
Columba Kim — Agnete ejus sorore — Petro Tshoi —
Barbara Tso uxore Sebastiani Nam — Magdalena
Hang — Agatha ejus Filia — Agatha Y — Benedicta
Hieng vidua — Elisabeth uxore Pauli Ting — Coecilia
ejus matre — Barbara Ko — Magdalena Y — Maria ejus
Sorore — Augustino Pak — Petro Hong — Paulo ejus

DECRETUM. 259

Fratre — Magdalena Lou uxore Petri Tshoi — Joanne
Y — Barbara Tshoi — Paulo He — Petro Y — Josepho
Tsang — Protasio Tsang — Petro Liou — Agatha
Tsang — Barbara Kim — Lucia vulgo la g<M>a — Anna
Han — Barbara Kim vidua — Catharina Y vielua —
Magdalena Tso — Francisco Tshoi — Andrea Tsen —
Theresia Kim — Stephano Minh — Antonio Kim —
Andrea Kim sacerdote indigena — Carolo Kiem —
Andrea Nam — Laurentio Kan — Josepho Im — The
resia Kim — Agatha Y — Susanna ejus famula — Ca
tharina Told — Delamotte Sacerdote Seminarii
Parisiensis — Philippo Minh Sacerdote indigena —
Petro Dinh Cathechista — Matthaeo Gam — Ludovico
Ngo Chatechista — Augusto Schoeffler Sacerdote e
Seminario Parisiemsi — Joanne Aloisio Bonnard Sacer
dote ex eodem Seminario — Augusto Chapdelain
Sacerdote e Seminario Parisiensi — Laurentio Pe —
Mou Neophito — Agnete Tsau-kong vidua, Die 17
Septembris 1857.

De praemissis autem a subscripto Secretario facta
Sanctissimo Domino Nostro Pio Papae IX. rela-
tione, Sanctitas Sua Rescriptum particularis ejus-
modi Congregationis ratum habens Commissionem
introductionis Causae supradescriptorum Servorum
Dei propria manu signare dignata est. Die 24
ejusdem Mensis et Anni.

L. * S.

C. EPISCOPUS ALBANEN. CARD. PATRIZI

S. R. C. PRAEFECTUS.
//. Capalti S. R. C. Secretarius.

2GO

DECRETUM

OCEANIAE 13EATIFICATIONIS, SEU DKCLARATIONIS
MARTYRII SERVI DEI

ALOISII MARIAE CHANEL

SACEDOTIS MARISTAE PRO-VICARII APOSTOLICI
OCEANIAE OCCIDENTALS.

Ineffiibilis Deus, qui dives est in misericordia,
propter nimiam charitatem suam qua dilexit nos,
ut ostenderet in saeculis supervenientibus abundantes
divitias fjratiae suae in bonitate super nos in Christo
Jesu {EpTies. ii. 4.) illud aetati nostrae videndum, et
gratulandum dedit, quod jamdiu Patribus nostris in
votis fuit, ut nullus jam terrae angulus esset, nee
tarn dissita regio, quo non Evangelic! verbi praeco-
nium. pervenisset. Ita naraque divini sermonis
administri sese legatione fungi pro eo ostenderunt,
qui dominatur a mari usque ad mare, et a flumine
usque ad terminos orbis ten-arum (Psal. 71. 8.)
illamque prae se tulere alacritatem et studium, quo
Christus Apostolos excitavit, dum ad Patrem ascen-
surus ait eos sibi fore testes in Jerusalem, et omni
Judaea, et Samaria, et usque ad ultimum terrae
(Act. Ap. 1. 8.J. Vasto siquidem pelago, longeque
dissitis regionibus interjccta tcllus, patribus nostris

DECRETUM. 261

ignorata multum, diuque tenebris erroris obsita
fuerat, neque a Nunciis divini eloquii edocta, neque
illorum sanguine fuerat irrigata. Jam vero paucis
ad hinc anriis relatum fuit Aloisiam Mariam Chanel
Sacerdotem Maristam, ac Pro-Vicarium Aposto-
licium Oceaniae Occidentalis post multos exantlatos
labores ut inter barbaras eas gentes coelestem Evan-
gelii luceni propagaret, tandem ab efferatis illis
hominibus in odium Fidei, quam praedicaverat
immani morte confectum, atque immolatum fuisse.
Cujus supplicii fortiter tolerati tam uberes, atque
insperati fructus extitere, ut paulo post universa
Futunae insula, ubi mortem Dei Famulus oppetiit
ultro libenterque ad Christ! Fidem amplectendam
maxima animorum consensione con versa sit: quod
vero maxime mirandum fuit, percussores ipsi, et
cacdis auctores ad bonam frugem redacti, et sceleris
poenas dedere lacrvmis, et sanctimoniae Praeconis
sui nobilissimum testimonium exhibuere. Quamo-
brem R. P. D. Petrus Bataillon illius regionis Vica-
rius Apostolicus Ejus Causam introducere cupiens
in Sacrorum Bituum Congregatione a Sanctissimo
Domino Nostro Pio Papa IX. effusis precibus pos-
tulavit, ut attends singularibus regionis adjunctis,
negotium integrum committere dignaretur peculiaii
Sacrorum Ilituum Conventui, audito in scriptis Voto
11. P. D. Sanctae Fidei Promotoris, atque ita qui-
dem ut authentica quae ab eodem Vicario Aposto-
lico allata sunt documenta loco informativi Processus
haberentur. Quibus precibus Sanctitas Sua die 27
Aprilis labentis Anni 1857 benigne annuit, ac dis-

262 DECRETUM.

quisitionem super Introductione Causao praedicti
Servi Dei Aloisii Mariae Chanel eidem commisit
particulari Congregation!, cui de Coreanis, Concinci-
nensibus, Tunckinensibus, et Sinensibus Martyribus
agere negotium datum faerat.

Quapropter particularis hujusmodi Congregatio
coacta penes Emura. et Ilraum. Dominum Cardina-
lem Constantinum Patrizi Albanensem Episcopura
Sacrorum Eituum Congregationis Praefectum sub-
scripta die, consideratis libratisque praedictis docu-
mentis, attentoque E. P. D. Andreae Mariae Frat-
tini Sanctae Fidei Promotoris Voto, qui etiam voce
sententiara suam exposuit, proposito sequenti Dubio:
An sit sic/nanda Commissio introductionis Causae
praedicti Servi Dei, in casu, et ad effectum de quo
ayitur ? rescribendum censuit : Si Sanctissimo pla-
cuerit signandam esse. Die 17 Septembris 1857.

Super quibus omnibus facta postmodum per in-
frascriptum Secretarium Sanctissimo Domino Nostro
relatione, Sanctitas Sua particularis Congregationis
sententiam ratam habens praedictam Commissionem
introductionis Causae propria manu signare dignata
est. Die 24 ejusdem mensis, et anni.
L.®8.

C. EPISCOPUS ALBANEN. CAED. PATRTZI
S. E. C. PEAEFECTUS.

H. Capalti S. R. C. Secretarius.

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